Heir of the Immortal's Resurrection
Chapter 8
Ororo stared at the dark blue-skinned teen before her. Her long white hair fluttered in the breeze coming off the ocean. She glanced at Tora, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
Nodding Ororo's pale blue eyes glanced around her, narrowing at the damaged container. She focused back on Herald, folding her arms, causing them to wrinkle her leather jacket. As she stared at him, her eyes glowed a luminescent white, "What happened here?"
Thunder rumbled overhead as dark grey clouds swam into view above them. Lightning flashed, creating pulses of light through the clouds.
Unfazed by her attempt at intimidation, Herald shook his head, "I only know how I ended up here, which involved reading the mind of a serial killer."
A thin white eyebrow rose, "You're a telepath?"
"Among other things," he dipped his head offering her his hand, "My name is Herald Gallio."
Slender caramel-colored fingers briefly intertwined with his, "Charmed, how do you know me?"
"I don't know this version of you, but I briefly encountered another."
Ororo stared at him, trying to see a lie in his red eyes. "Another version of me," she repeated. She shook her head, "Maybe we can talk about that later."
"Maybe."
Ororo focused on Sharee and Tora, closing the distance between them, she wrapped her arms around the pale-haired girl, "I'm so glad to see you are safe," her eyes glistened, "when Cerebro lost contact with you, I feared the worst."
Tora wrapped her arms around Ororo, inhaling the scent of fresh rain that seemed to cling to her, "I'm fine mom."
Drawing back, Ororo rested her hands on Tora's shoulders while glancing at Sharee, "Why don't you introduce your friend and tell me how you ended up in this mess?" she glanced at Herald, "and how he is involved?"
Tora glanced at Herald, "He saved us," she nodded to the dark-haired man he had stabbed with the Psionic dagger still trapped in a rectangle of metal, "From that guy, and one other that escaped during the battle. From what little I was able to overhear, he took out the second guys bodyguards before confronting the two," she looked up in thought, "I guess you would call them leaders for lack of a better term."
Ororo nodded, "Okay, so how did you end up here"
Tora gestured to the green-haired teen beside her, "This is Sharee Collins…"
While Tora explained her arrival at the docks to Ororo, Herald focused on the others Ororo had brought with her. Reaching out with his mind, he connected just enough to learn their names and abilities.
The first was Joshua Foley codenamed Elixir. He was 5'9" tall with blonde hair and golden skin. Dark tattoo-like markings flowed over his eyes and down his face, disappearing down his neck. They continued on the back of hands that poked out of a grey sweatshirt.
Blue eyes flicked around nervously as if searching for threats. He angled his body towards Tora Drake, slipping one hand into the pockets of his jeans. His grey tennis shoes squeaked in the water flowing from Tora's melted barrier.
From their connection, Herald could tell he had the power of Biokinesis and Lifeforce manipulation. Now as he stared at Tora, he was actually checking the life signs of the people inside the container.
The part of Harald that craved for information wanted to dive deeper into his mind, to learn his history. However, knowing he did not have a lot of time, he focused on the next individual.
Clarence Ferguson was 5'5" tall with magenta skin and hair. Dark purple eyes with no visible pupil studied him. The dark pink jewel in the center of her forehead shining in the light around them. She narrowed her eyes, drawing attention to the tattoo over her left eye.
She stepped forward, her posture tense. She wore a green tank top, and hip-hugging jeans, proudly showing her mutation to the world, red tennis shoes with grey designs scuffed the ground as she stopped before him. "What are you looking at?"
"Sorry," his lips turned up in a slight smile, "I just never met a relative of my grandfather before." He says as he found her mutant power to be portal creation along with portal constructs.
"And who is your grandfather?" A shorter man asked, muscles bulging off his stocky frame.
James Howlett was 5'3" tall and stocky. Stubble covered his square jaw. Elongated canines flashed at Herald as he bared his teeth, but the thing that drew the blue-skinned teen's attention was the unique hairstyle. His hair came to a point on either side of his head.
"You know my grandfather as Apocalypse," Herald replied as he absorbed the information about Wolverine. He had a fantastic regenerative healing factor, enhanced senses, bone claws, and animal empathy. For a long moment, he stared at the short Canadian, images of a lab flashing through his mind.
Clarence stepped forward, "How did you know I was a descendent of Apocalypse?"
"Your mutant energy feels ever so slightly like my own." Herald glanced at the last two of the group, Kurt Wagoner and Katherine Pryde. As much as he would like to look at their abilities, he could tell by the tension in the groups shoulders that things might not go well if he stayed.
Taking a step back, he did something he'd never done before, he reached out with his replication field, focusing it on Clarence, Joshua, Ororo, and Logan. The world shifted around him, becoming made of multicolored energy. Before him stood Ororo, Logan, Joshua, and Clarence, each of them was made of crimson energy.
For a moment, he wondered why they were made of red energy, considering his psychic energy was red, but he shook his head and focused on the task at hand. He had learned while working with his grandmother that he could choose what powers to replicate, but this was the first time he had ever accepted his power replication as a part of him. Having always felt the addictive urge to replicate powers until recently. Part of him was afraid to use it, now that he was free.
With Ororo, Joshua, and Clarence he replicated all of their abilities. As he focused on them the energy inside their body seemed to shift into a combination of words and numbers. As he reached out, the words and numbers shifted forming into a stream that flowed towards him. Concentrating on it, he felt their powers slip into his body, and fit inside him like missing pieces coming home.
This time felt different like he was gaining more understanding as he focused on all the abilities he had absorbed; more was revealed to him. It made him wonder if he was subconsciously suppressing his abilities. Pushing that thought to the back of his mind, he focused on James a.k.a. Logan a.k.a. Wolverine.
With him, he was going to try something different. While replicating his healing factor, he was going to try to learn what he could from Logan's to increase his own while replicating the ability. Even though he was replicating his healing factor, he was hoping to learn more from it. Since he already had a healing factor, he was mostly going to focus on Logan's enhanced senses.
He stared at Logan, and like before numbers and letters flowed out of him, but this time, a sequence of letters and numbers glowed a brighter red flowing into his body.
As the new information settled in his mind, the world came into focus. Logan stepped forward, three metal claws emerging from the knuckles of his left hand. "If you are the grandson of Apocalypse, how do we know you're not involved in all of this."
"Well, first of all, I was not raised by my grandfather, and only met my grandmother in the last year. Second of all, you can't exactly blame the sins of the father on the sun now can you, and third, if I was involved, I would already be gone."
James a.k.a. Logan a.k.a. Wolverine sniffed, his claws withdrawing back into his hand, a single drop of blood splashing on the ground. "Good answer," he turned to Ororo, "he didn't have anything to do with this, I smell no deception, and his heart rate is steady. He could be trained to mimic those signs, but given his age I doubt it."
Inside, Herald grinned, he wondered if they would trust him less if they knew his true age. "Well, it was nice meeting you, but I have places to be." A red gash opened in the air behind him and Clarence's eyes widened. Herald glanced at her, "It was nice meeting you cousin. Stay safe and thank you for the information."
With a single step, Harald disappeared into the portal.
As the flash of its closing lit the night, Ororo turned to Clarence, "What information?"
Clarence slowly shook her head, "I have no idea."
–XX –
Herald stumbled out of the portal into the office where he and Mary had left their things. Stumbling into the desk he placed his palms atop it as the rectangle containing Sirius Black's body slid across the floor. Throwing out his arm, he wrapped it in telekinetic power before it could slam into the window.
His head pounded with the information he'd absorbed from Sirius Black and the knowledge he had gotten from Clarence. Once he had sensed her resonance with him, he couldn't stop himself from digging a little deeper.
There was a family, descendants of Apocalypse who inherited his self-molecular manipulation abilities. "With those, I could change my form and walk in the world again instead of hiding in the shadows." A part of him felt guilty about mimicking the abilities of Logan, Joshua, Ororo, and Clarence without their permission, but if the battle with Sirius had taught him anything it was that he needed more versatility.
He shook his head. He would have to think about the Slade family later there were more important things to take care of first. According to Sirius's memories, there was an imminent attack planned on the hellfire club.
He knew he had to stop that, but more concerning was the Weapon X Facility run by Hermione Granger. According to Sirius's memories, the wizards have developed a way to find mutants before their X genes are activated. They would then kidnap those mutants, and transport them to the Weapon X Facility in rural Canada.
Harald closed his eyes as the knowledge finally settled, "Which one do I take care of first?" He had about a day before the attack on the hellfire club happened, but depending on what happened at the facility, he may not get back in time to stop it even with his teleportation abilities.
He shook his head, "I'm sorry, but whoever's at the Facility is just going to have to hang on a little longer." Straightening, he glanced at the body of Sirius Black. He would like to examine the man and find out what made wizards different than normal humans, but at the moment he had no residence and no time to devote to it.
With a force of will, a portal opened.
Air began to be sucked from the room.
Heat washed in from the other side. Around the edges of the fire, one could just barely glimpse a starless void. Everything in the room began to smoke. With a flick of his fingers, Sirius Black slid into the portal. The moment he was through the portal shrank out of existence.
Herald glanced around him, every piece of paper in the office had burned to ash and the filing cabinets started to melt. Noticing his shoulders felt lighter, he glanced down, finding the bags he and Mary had deposited here were gone.
He winced, "Oops." He ran a hand through his hair, Mary was not going to be happy, but at least now he had money to replace what they lost. Turning, he reached out with his mind. As Mary's location pinged, he flicked his finger. A crimson oval opened in the air.
Glancing one more time around the room, he stepped through.
–XX –
An hour and a half later, Herald stood on a balcony of a modest hotel, overlooking the city. He was right, Mary was not happy that her things had been destroyed, but giving her his debit card quickly put a smile on her face. The door to the room opened and he turned.
He watched Mary almost gliding over the crimson carpet of the room. Spinning through the air, she threw her purchases on one of the beds, wrinkling the taught white sheets. Messing her hair, she strode towards Herald, her Auburn hair falling in a wave and resting on the shoulder of her white blouse.
Stopping in front of the railing, she placed her hands on it leaning forward and taking a deep breath of night air.
"Happy now I take it?"
"Extremely," she flicked his card to him, which he froze with a bit of telekinetic power.
"So, we're heading to the hellfire club tomorrow."
"I would rather you not come with me tomorrow."
Mary's eyes narrowed, "Why?"
Herald rolled his eyes, "Well it could be because we're going into enemy territory, and that enemy territory is going to be attacked. We don't know how many people in the hellfire club are complicit in Benedict Kine's activities," he placed a hand on her shoulder, "I don't want someone else I care about getting hurt."
She stepped closer to him, angling her head up to stare into his eyes. She poked him in the chest, "I'm going with you, someone's got to be there to watch your back."
Herald took a step back, "why?"
"What do you mean why?"
"Why do you want to come with me, there has to be more to it than just feeding the violence your other personalities crave?"
"Why do you do all this," she raised a hand, "and don't give me the story about being locked up by the Potters, there's more to it than that. If that was what drove you, you would hide away somewhere," she glanced up and down his body, "especially with the new powers you replicated," she shook her head, "either that, or you would have gone for revenge, so you first, why?"
Herald stared at her for a long moment before finally turning to gaze over the city again, "Tell me what you see."
Cocking her head to the side, Mary gazed out at the city, "Buildings, people?"
"I see and feel," he tapped his temple, "a world that our people aren't part of. People down there can walk the streets without getting gawked at. They can go into stores and buy things. Can have homes and families without fear of being attacked for being different," he turned to stare into Mary's eyes, "I want that for our people."
"For as long as I can remember, I've had a desire to build and create. To make the world a better place, but because of the hunger, I never got the chance," he turned to look out over the city again, "I hope in the future I can finally find a place of peace and build to my heart's content, that is why I fight."
Shifting closer to him, Mary joined him in gazing out over the city. "Mine is a lot simpler. Before you helped me make peace with my other personalities, I did a lot of bad things, and the darker parts of me liked them. By teaming up with you, I can atone for my sins," a small smile curled her lips, "while feeding my darker urges." She glanced at him, "It doesn't hurt that everyone up" here, she tapped her temple, "is quite fond of you."
For a moment, the two just stared into each other's eyes.
Finally, Mary turned away, "Well, if we're going to attack the hellfire club, I guess we better get some rest." She began walking away.
Harald grabbed her wrist, causing her to tense. Noticing this, he released her. "I'm sorry," he rubbed the back of his neck, "it's just we're not going to attack the hellfire club until tomorrow night, so, we have some time."
Mary glanced over her shoulder, "What are you suggesting?"
"That's entirely up to you."
Turning, she stepped forward and kissed him on the lips. Just as Harald began to lean into the kiss, she pulled back a flirtatious smile on her lips, "Hopefully, you will return to your true age soon, and then we can have some real fun."
Turning, she sashayed back into the room.
Exhaling, Herald ran a hand through his hair cursing his teenage body. It'd been a long time since his relationship with Flora. Thinking of her sent a jolt of pain through his heart. His hand curled into a fist, she needed him, and he was gone. Off following his hunger.
Looking up he watched as Mary rifled through her bags, he would not let it happen again. Regardless of how this all played out, he would do everything in his power not to lose another person precious to him.