Johnny Storm had not left his daughter's side since he arrived, and in doing so, his son had avoided the medical area as much as possible. There had been a few moments where he would see Kielar looking into the room from the door, or soft singing had woken him up at Karla's bedside, and then the moment he realized Johnny was awake, he disappeared. The man did not know how he should approach the situation, especially after seeing his face when they met in the hangar.
There were only a few others in the medical wing of the compound. Most of the injuries were superficial and were being healed as fast as Josh Foley could handle it. It had surprised Johnny that they had snagged the healer for the facility so quickly, but apparently Daken has more connections than even Johnny knew about.
That had been another shock. He had known that Daken had changed over the years, especially since he had connected with Fantastic 4 all those years ago. Seeing him again brought back more memories than he knew he had, having shoved them to the back. Seeing him with a young boy brought back memories of his own kids being young and brought forward regrets. He heard some kids from Xavier's School talking about how a speedster saved them. He heard the West Coast Avengers talking when they got there, called Kielar their Captain America, even though he operated on the east coast with Tommy Stark.
The moment they had introduced the world to the new Captain America and Iron Man, he knew his son was part of the pair. There was a pride inside him he wished he could have expressed to him, but their relationship had already been rocky by then. He had screwed up and let his past feelings get in the way. Now that Kielar was older, he didn't see the boy as a future Pietro Maximoff. He saw him as his own person, and he only wished he could have tried harder to do that much earlier.
"Johnny?" Reed's voice pulled him from his thoughts and he turned to face the man that stood in the doorway. "We're headed to the meeting room. Almost everyone has arrived, so we are going to give an update on what is happening."
"Alright." Johnny told him and stood up, then leaned down and kissed Karla's forehead. "Ill be right back Princess." he whispered before walking out.
"Before we go in." Reed said as the elevator door shut. "Most of the X-Men did not make it to this location, some of their children did."
"Where are they?" Johnny asked.
"From what I gathered from those here, they didn't know about this place and went to other locations around the world. Some of them didn't survive. Bobby Drake, Lorna Dane and Scott Summers' bodies were recovered from Xavier's. they took in Warren after they went to his home, so was his son. They brought here his daughter and both Elizabeth and Shae were in England, so they are safe. Pryde got her daughter out and her son is here. She went to England with a group and they made it safely. Most of them are the younger children from the school. Emma Frost was with them with her son and youngest daughter. Renee is here, though. I believe we have contacted them. Nobody has heard from Logan. Laura and her four kids made it off the Guthrie farm, but not the entire family made it. I think they lost Sam and Paige, but it hasn't been confirmed." He paused. "We don't know the location of most of the LeBeau's, they took Rogue into custody."
"Any update on Steve and Tony?" Johnny asked. "I think I heard Tommy made it here."
"He did. They were being held until last night. They are lying low and going to get here as soon as possible, but they don't want to raise suspicion by leaving immediately. They are most likely being watched closely. Pepper got them out and is staying with them." Reed paused as the elevator opened and they stepped out. He stopped Johnny from continuing. "We don't know where half of the Avengers are. There are few here, but like with Steve and Tony, they could have been taken in. All these kids are on edge, so we need to try to keep the peace."
As they approached the door, it opened, and immediately the yelling was heard. Reed and Johnny looked at eachother and before either of them could say anything, an unlikely person took charge. "Shut the hell up! All of you!" Daken yelled over them and slammed his hands down on the table that separated most of them from getting into physical fights."Some of us have fucking sensitive ears, so how about we not yell?" it surprised Johnny at how level his voice was. He had definitely changed since he last saw him.
Jade stepped forward with her arms crossed. "First thing I want to know is why nobody knew about this place except the speedster."
"The speedster has a name." Tommy Stark snapped, and Johnny looked over to see him standing next to Kielar. "His name is Kielar and if it weren't for him, your friends would not have made it here."
"If we had known about this place, we wouldn't be so scattered in the first place." Jade snapped. "And you can't tell me none of you knew this would not happen because you knew exactly where to find us. I want to know why we weren't told of this so that we could save people."
"Because we didn't know this would happen." Dakota Potts stepped in. "We knew it might happen and Tony wanted to make sure that there was a place for Kielar to go so he could be safe. We don't have many mutants within the Avengers but.."
"Stark was selfish and wanted to just save his own."
"No." Kielar said, and Johnny could see every bodies attention turn to the boy. "He teamed up with Yashida Enterprise to create a haven if it was needed. Yes, the original thought was about me, but he knew that more people would need it."
"Yet the X-Men were not made aware?" Vivienne Worthington asked. "We have people, families who escaped to England, France, and even Australia, when they could have come here. We are all separated, but who I see in this room are a bunch of non-powered Avengers and some misfits that left Xavier's, lead by an ex-villain."
"Kid, I'm not the leader of the team that rescued some of the taken mutants." Daken laughed. "That was all them. I just helped where I could."
"Who is the leader, then? If you say Desiree LeBeau then you are in for an earful," Jade told them. "Where is she? She didn't even bother with this meeting?"
"She had something she needed to do." James, Daken's brother, said. "We aren't here to throw around accusations, we are here to work through this." he stated. "This place was built a few years ago and has had a rotation of people staying here as a precaution. The other day was the day that everything occurred. Nobody knew it was going to happen, but everybody here knew that it could happen."
"That bitch knew. You know she knew because she tries to know everything!" Jade exclaimed.
"That bitch is the reason you weren't taken to a camp and still have a collar on, so tone down on the attitude." Daken snapped. Johnny remained silent as the exchange took place, but moved into the room further with Reed and toward where Ben stood. "We were there because the tech they used gave the location of where they were headed, intercepting was all we could do. We could have handled the Baxter building, possibly Stark Tower, but you think the five of us could have taken down Xavier's? We would not have stood a chance and there would have been even more casualties. We had to go with what we knew we could handle. Everyone had the same warning, which was nothing. These kids have been putting everything into trying to keep this from happening."
"Obviously they failed!" Jade yelled, her eyes having filled with tears into her eyes. "You didn't see what we saw! You didn't see the fear in their eyes, you didn't see the death. They didn't even try to just take us, they killed us. Children. Children that some of our parents died trying to save."
"You can't blame that on them." Azari said. "What happened at Xavier's is a tragedy that should have never occurred. You have every right to be upset, but you have no right to be upset with those here trying to help. We are just as devastated as you are, but we also understand that what we experienced is not the same as what you did that night. We were lucky."
"You could have left, you could have taken your little team and left, you have diplomatic immunity." Jade said. "So you can take your…"
"I would stop if I were you." Francis Barton warned as he stepped next to Azari. "I'm not as nice with my words and you aren't going to speak to my boyfriend like that." he set his coffee cup down. "Hopefully you will reword what you were going to say, so by all means, continue."
"Don't speak to her like that." Vivienne interjected. "We don't even know you. You don't know us."
"Jade Summers. Red over there with the bad attitude, wanting to blame people here for what happened. Her abilities are to put a person's greatest fear into their mind and live it in a loop until she decides enough is enough. You are Vivienne Worthington, your parents are Angel and Psylocke, both of who have left the X-Men. You have Psionic wings and can use them to take flight, defense or even weapons. A twin brother and a little sister. Jett Wisdom, he's not actually a Wisdom, his father is Peter Quill, but he took his stepdad's name...he is a shadow…"
"OKay, we get it." Jett rolled his eyes. "You read files on us, Francis."
"How did you get our files?" Vivienne asked.
"Isn't it obvious? Azari gave it to them. He's the only one who would have any access." Jade told them. "You think just because you are a Prince.."
"That's enough." This time James Rogers spoke up, and the redhead moved next to Azaris other side. "You need to stop using the fact that he's a prince against him."
"Maybe if he had been with us…
"I would be dead too!" Azari yelled. "I would have been with my mother and considering they shot down her plane, I would have been dead." he felt Francis take his hand, and James put his hand on his shoulder. "My mother was dedicated to the X-Men. She fought for them most of her life and for you to accuse me of not caring? That is a terrible thing to say. I had the chance to return home to make sure that my team was safe. They were the directions my mother left me. It is what my father wanted me to do. But I am here, I am here because what happened was not right. It was wrong, and we needed to fight for our freedom again. We are here so that you do not have to fight alone, but if you keep this up, you will end up that way."
"Fine." Jade said softly. "I didn't know about Ms. Munroe. I'm sorry." She paused. "That still doesn't negate the fact that the speedster could have helped us."
"I.." Kielar started. Johnny looked over at his son. "I did what I could. I went to Xavier's as soon as I could, I..I really tried."
"Or maybe you're more like Pietro than everyone thinks and you're just selfish and wanted to save yourself."
"Whoa, whoa, young lady." Johnny said. "Don't turn your anger on him just because another talked you down. I have sat here and listened to you berate everyone here, and there has not been a single thank you given to those who got you out of the government's custody." he told her. "And my son, because that is who you are currently addressing, did exactly what he was supposed to do . I'm pretty sure Steve and Tony would have told him not to be a hero for once in his life and to stay put, but from what Bucky told me, he went back out there and helped. I will not let you sit there and belittle him in front of all these people." Kielar and Tommy looked at each, both surprised by the man's defensive outburst. "None of you know what each other went through, and none of you will understand what everyone is feeling in this room. We all went through something and we are all coping, and we do that differently. But turning on each other is not the answer."
"Well, said Johnny." Reed told his teammate. "I know it's hard right now, and being in this room isn't easy. You don't know each other personally. A file will only go so far. If we want to fight this, we need to coordinate with each other and work together. Every single one of you has had training. All of you know what needs to be done. Before we do anything, we need a plan."
"Going back to the states uncoordinated will not be a solution. We can't make any of ya work together. You need to do that." Ben added.
Everyone in the room grew silent and then a moment later, they turned their attention toward the door when it opened. Desiree stood there. "Dey just killed her." She said. "Dey killed meh Mama. Publicly..dey.." She trailed off as Izzy Allerdyce and James Howlett moved to her. "She wouldn't give nobody up." She whispered. "Dey killed her." She repeated.
"Des." James said, trying to get her attention. She looked at him, tears pouring down her face. The room was silent, shock taking over the all.
"She...she wasn't alone. Dey...dey had Logan." Daken moved closer. "They executed him. Dey had da Muramasa blade."
"Thats impossible. My dad had that…" Jade said started. "They knew about the blade. They…" she trailed off.
"I need to go find Laura and her kids. Jimmy, you stay here with Keegan." Daken said and hurried from the room.
"Wait!" Johnny called. "You can't just rush out of here alone." he continued as he followed the man, Bucky silently followed the two out of the room. James continued to hold Desiree.
"So what are we going to do, if they are publicly executing the X-Men…" Mara Romanoff asked. "We can't just sit back and let it keep happening. Those two are big names. They're trying to make an example out of them."
"They won't stop there. They have my dad and brother." Vivienne said.
"We'll get them. We won't stop until we do, Viv." Jett consoled her.
"They aren't stopping at mutants." Dakota said, looking up from her computer. "Steve and Tony may have gotten out, but they were also publicly taken." She paused and looked at Francis and Mara. "They have Clint and Natasha."
"The fuck they do." Francis said and headed toward the door immediately.
":Flit!" Mara yelled and followed him. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to make S.H.I.E.L.D do what they said they would do. They said that this team was protected, that our parents were protected, and if they want me on their side, they better hold their end of the goddamn deal."
"We'll go with you. We have clearance." Nicole said. "Ryan and I have clearance. We can get you in so they don't see you as a threat immediately."
"We shouldn't split up so much." Azari joined the conversation.
"You and James stay here, I'll be fine, my mom is there and she won't let anything happen to me." Francis said, "I need to do this though. I've sat here and heard exactly what the government is doing and it needs to stop. Someone needs to step in before it goes any further, and S.H.I.E.L.D has a voice that has been heard in the past. They need to help."
"I can go." Blaine Banner piped up. "I don't like them, but they might be more inclined to help if I'm standing there, so it couldn't hurt. But Devon has to stay here. No arguments. And it should just be us four so that we aren't bombarding them with a huge group. I'm pretty good with words when I need to be, but Francis is a hothead and someone needs to be the voice of reason."
"I think that is the most I have heard him speak, ever." Tommy said, breaking the silence in the room. "So we have four heading the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. Daken is going to find his sister, and I'm guessing Johnny and Bucky are going with him. What are the rest of us doing?"
"Team exercise." Reed told them. "There is a facility to train in the subbasement. We will begin in the morning." He moved toward the door and paused at James and Desiree. "I'm sorry for your loss Desiree, nobody should have to see that."
"Ah'm sorry f'r ya's as well, M'sieur Richards." Desiree said, lifting her head for a moment. "Ah appreciate ya coming here and helping us, even after everything."
"We appreciate you bringing Karla back to us." He said and left down the hall, hoping to catch Johnny before he potentially left. Ben followed.
The room fell silent as they left all the kids alone with their own thoughts. Kielar's mind raced from his father's words still, and as he looked around the room at those who remained, he took a deep breath. "They're right. We trained for this. We're the ones who are going to have to do this. If you want to join the fight, basement level 3 is where training will take place. If you don't think you can handle it, nobody will judge you. But we need to do something, and to start, we need to learn more about each other and what we can provide to the team. So you have until tomorrow morning to make the voice on whether you will fight." He said and made a beeline for the door, Tommy right at his side. Once they reached the elevator and stood inside, Tommy looked at his friend.
"Kie? You holding up?"
"TJ? Johnny just told a room full of people that he was proud of me. I mean, he said it without actually saying it but…" Kielar looked at him. "I'm not at all okay right now. I am not handling any of this, but if Steve and Tony are holding up, and Vivienne and Jade and Desiree and Renee, who said nothing today...if they are, then I'm going to be. I am going to fight. I will not crumble. At Least not yet."
"Then let's fight." Tommy said, holding up his fist.
"Let's fight." Kielar responded by bumping his fist against it.