[mentions of drug addiction and withdrawal, pain, vomiting, psychiatric care abuse]
I'm sure I'm not the only one really sad at the show's cancellation, but I finally made it through this chapter.
"Lorna, you have any contact with mutants around here?"
John can feel Lorna blink at Evangeline. He can relate with her surprise. It turns out that Evangeline has come to them both with no resources at all, intending to leave them to build her dream Underground station from scratch. John hasn't even set foot in Atlanta before today. What does she think they can do?
"There's this bar," Lorna says after thinking for a while. "It's run by a mutant. I don't really know the guy that well, but he definitely knows the local community."
"Lead the way," Evangeline says. "At least we won't have to stay crammed in a stinking car."
John thinks privately that his cramped, smelly car might be better than a loud bar. It's the middle of the day, so there's the chance that it might not be too busy, but he still doesn't like the idea. Though the worst of his acute withdrawal symptoms have abated, one thing he's found out in the last two weeks is that his hypersensitivities can, in fact, get worse than during a migraine. It was not a pleasant discovery.
Tex's lounge is dark, at least, and mostly empty when they get there. The owner is alone behind the counter, with only a couple of patrons at a table near the back.
"Fade," Lorna says, approaching the large man.
He looks at her for a moment. "Polaris," he says eventually. "You haven't been around here in a long time."
John blinks at the nickname. He's pretty sure Lorna chose it while she was still a teenager at the Institute, during the worse of her rebellious phase. She's still using that?
But then Fade is obviously a nickname too, and John himself hasn't been called anything but Thunderbird, the ridiculous code name his unit chose for him, since he enlisted. It was actually weird hearing Evangeline call him by his given name, back in the fight club. No one has used it in years but Pulse.
"I was...away," Lorna says.
"I figured you were probably dead," Fade shrugs. John raises an eyebrow at his callousness. "Who are your friends? Are you even here for a drink?"
"Yes," Evangeline answers instead of Lorna. "I'll have a Martini, please. And we need to talk to you."
"I'm John Proudstar," John introduces himself, deciding to go for the polite way since no-one else seems to. He starts ordering a beer, but he feels Evangeline's stare. "I'll have a coke, please."
She's probably right, alcohol is unlikely to do him any good in his state. John glares back anyway.
"Fade," the man says, but he doesn't shake John's extended hand.
"This is Evangeline," Lorna adds. "She has a...project."
"You've heard of the Underground?" Evangeline asks.
Fade just nods, turning away to fill a dubiously clean glass for her. He puts a bottle in front of John, who takes a swing and remembers why he hates Coke. He sighs, annoyed.
It only takes a minute for Evangeline to explain her plan, as there really isn't much of one.
"So you want to build a clandestine mutant station here, but you don't know any mutants," Fade summarizes doubtfully.
"I get that it sounds−" Evangeline starts, glaring at John and Lorna when they make no move to defend her idea. They may be on board with this, but she's the one basically throwing them to the wolves here.
"It sounds ridiculous is what it does."
"I do know some mutants," Lorna says, in a weak attempt.
"Your junkie friends? You've been off the street for what, a year? Chances are they're all dead by now."
Lorna hangs her head, looking genuinely saddened. "You heard anything?" she asks Fade, not looking at him.
"Not much. Sometimes Sage comes in and I give her what I can. But it's been at least a month."
"The first thing we need is a place," John says, deciding that since he's involved, he might as well do the work in front of him.
"And you think I have, what, a hotel for mutants lying around?" Fade retorts.
"We thought you might know some people, or have an idea," Lorna says.
"Well I don't. I don't do charity, and I'm not going to let you put my bar in danger for your reckless little project. The only thing you're going to accomplish in getting yourselves and everyone who helps you arrested."
Fade turns away from them, going to the other end of the bar. John and Lorna look at each other, and she shrugs. "I didn't say I knew nice mutants," she says.
Evangeline looks at her watch. "Unfortunately, this means you will have to figure this out on your own. I have a plane to catch."
"You're leaving now?"
"I have to be back in Philadelphia in the morning. I do have a day job, you know."
John almost growls at the disdain in her voice. Evangeline has made no secret of what she thinks of him, but it still grates him. Why help him through the withdrawal, stay in his tiny, crappy apartment for ten days while he puked his guts out every half-hour, if this is what she feels about him?
There's just as much disgust on Lorna's face. John remembers the number of fights she got into at school because someone called her crazy. Her mental health issues are still a painful subject, then. Not surprising, if she just spent nearly a year in a psychiatric hospital. John remembers all too well how awful those places can be.
Yes, neither of them have stable, productive lives. So what? They're mentally ill mutants, screwed over time and time again by the system. And they're going to help with Evangeline's Underground project. She has no right to believe she's better than them.
"I'll see if I can send anyone your way to help," Evangeline adds, softening a little. "In the meantime, this is the best I can do."
She opens her purse and takes out a small wad of bills. "It can get you through a couple of weeks if you're careful. Enough time to find a place and get things started."
"Thanks," John says. It's not a lot of money, but combined with the little he's saved from his last fights−the money he didn't have time to spend on drugs−it should help for a while.
"I'll get a taxi to the airport. Here's my phone number. Don't call unless you absolutely need to."
"Right," Lorna says dryly. "Thank you for all the help."
Evangeline frowns at her sarcasm. "You'd rather be back at the hospital?"
Lorna shakes her head.
"Thank you, really," John says. It's hard to be grateful when Evangeline is so cold and seemingly uncaring, but he's seen her differently in the last few weeks. No one who truly didn't care would have held his hair back as he puked dozens of times. He might hate her for getting him clean when the cravings get really bad, but intellectually he knows how much she helped.
Evangeline puts a folded piece of paper on the counter.
"Instructions on how to get onto our secure network. Memorize them and burn them."
She stands up and leaves, before John and Lorna can say another word. No goodbyes. They aren't friends, just people come together out of necessity.
John watches her go, then looks back at the money and the piece of paper on the counter.
"We share the money," he says, splitting the bills in two. He and Lorna have no good reason to trust each other, so it's the easiest solution.
Lorna looks at the paper, her lips moving as she commits it to memory. John imitates her while she makes her share of the money disappear into her pocket.
"Any thoughts on a place?" he asks, taking out a lighter to burn the paper. He holds it until it's nearly gone, the flame touching his fingers without burning them, then drops it into an ashtray.
"Not yet," Lorna answers. "I'll try to find Sage. She has a whole network of street mutants who squat buildings, maybe they'll think of something."
"Okay. We have enough to get a motel room until then, if it doesn't take too long."
Five days later, John sits down on his bed defeated, deciding that it is taking too long. Their money will be gone soon, and they're still getting nowhere. John has been trying to contact a few elusive mutants in the city, whose name other station leaders gave him on the drive from Tucson, but he's had no success so far. People are in hiding. With the situation getting worse everywhere, mutants who can pass for humans will do anything to protect their status, and the others don't show their faces if they can help it.
John hopes that Lorna has had more luck, because at this rate, they'll be on the streets in two days at the most. And Lorna is getting more and more restless everyday, as her meds finish running through her system. There's be no telling how she's going to feel tomorrow, if she'll be hiding under the covers or running up the walls.
"I found Sage," Lorna announces, walking into their room and locking the door behind her with a flick of her hand. "She went to see Fade, looking for food for her friends."
"Good," John says, "because I've gotten nowhere. Again."
"She says she's willing to help us find other mutants, but she doesn't believe in the Underground. She doesn't think we can accomplish anything," Lorna says dejectedly, throwing her bag on the second bed. They've been sleeping in the same room to save on rent, neither of them a stranger to tight living conditions.
"I'm getting closer to agreeing with her."
"So am I," Lorna admits. "At least she was mostly sober. She took me to her friends, everyone there was high on Kicks."
"I can hardly blame them," John mutters. The cravings are getting harder to ignore every day.
"You were on drugs too," Lorna understands.
John raises his gaze to meet hers in surprise. He hasn't told her that.
"It's not hard to guess. Your hands are still shaking, and you have that look in your eyes. I've been around enough addicts to know it."
"I...got lost for a while," John admits, looking away again. "Before Evangeline found me in Tucson."
"Why were you even in Tucson?" Lorna asks.
"I was looking for a friend," John says. "He was with me in the Corps, and he got arrested when the Sentinel Services rounded up every mutant who served."
"They seriously did that? I thought it was just a rumor. I heard they'd kicked all mutants out of the military, but..."
"I guess they figured out they couldn't afford to have an army of mutants trained for combat on their hands."
"God," Lorna murmurs. "So this is really it, uh? The repression has never been this bad before. The Brotherhood always said it would happen again, but this..."
"The Brotherhood, Lorna? They're who you're going to listen to?"
"Who else? The X-Men are gone. We don't know what happened to everyone at the Institute. Who are we supposed to follow, John?"
"Maybe it's time we stopped following anyone," John says. "We're not lost kids anymore. This network that Evangeline wants us to build...it's a good idea. I mean, I was reluctant at first, but it might actually work."
"Maybe it will help some mutants get out of the U.S. alive," Lorna sighs. "But it won't solve the larger problem. The humans are never going to stop oppressing us."
"No. But I'm starting to think that nothing will solve that. We've just got to do our best to help."
"And live in fear for the rest of our lives?"
"Do you see another solution? The Brotherhood? All they do is kill people and spread more fear. You think that's the solution?"
Lorna shrugs. "No. I don't know."
"Anyway, they're gone too," John says. "They haven't made a single announcement since the attacks."
"I still can't believe that they're all just...gone," Lorna bites her lip. "All at once? It doesn't make sense."
"Maybe they were targeted somehow. I've seen weirder shit in the Marines," John shrugs. He's been wondering the same thing, but there's no point in rehashing it. There's nothing they can do about it. "Sage give you anything on a place we can use?"
"Yes, actually, I may have something," Lorna says, excitement coming back in her voice. "I can't believe I didn't think of it before now, but Sage reminded me."
"What is it?"
"A year ago after the Oakland Riots, the National Guard attacked a mutant orphanage just outside the city. One of the kids freaked out and lost control. He killed five people, including himself, and destroyed the whole area. Sage told me it's still condemned and held as a toxic waste contamination site, because they aren't sure what he did."
"If it's dangerous−" John starts.
"That's just the thing, it's not," Lorna stops him. "The kid just made the ground shake."
"And you know that because−"
"Because I went there. It's how I got arrested, actually. I was with some friends, there was a Purifier protest by the site where they were telling everyone mutants are too dangerous to be left free, so we staged a counter protest, sneaked inside and scared the hell out of them."
John snorts. "Sounds like you alright," he says. "You think there are buildings in there we could use?"
"Yes. There's a bank that was undergoing construction work, it's still standing. We'd have to clear it out, but it should be easy to get the power back without anyone noticing, maybe even water. And it's huge. It could house fifty people if needed."
"Okay then," John says. "Let's check it out tomorrow."
I hope you liked this. There should be one more chapter to this story, and then I'll try to go on and make it a series, with different preseries moments, if I find the time and the inspiration now that there won't be a season 3.
On that note, the fandom is shrinking very fast, and I need reader interaction to get enough motivation to write. So if you want more, leave a comment, find me on Tumblr, keep the fandom alive a little while longer!