( Volume: 4 Arc: "the new Hellions" 4 Issue: 4/4 )

Chapter 153 : planning for the future

"You have failed me," He said. "All of you have failed me, to this date. But that's okay, because I'm a forgiving sort of guy, and I adapt to situations. I've got a new plan for you, just for you, my dear, delicious lady."

The Leper Queen gazed at him dryly, her mask off. Usually this meant she was going to kill whoever was looking her in the eye, but this time she would not. Not yet, at least. She was hideously disfigured, her flesh melted
into her teeth, her nose missing, her eyes dead and cold. All of this had been caused by her daughter, her mutant daughter who had set her on fire upon discovering her powers. Lucia Paige.

She had once been beautiful, good-humored, loving. She'd been a nurse, and had married her high school sweetheart; they'd been ecstatic with the arrival of Lucia Paige, their daughter. But a darkness ran deep through
the heart of their happy little home, something that had stayed in the back of her mind. A mutant had passed her when she was pregnant, spread its filth into the air. She had breathed it in and felt her daughter kick fitfully in her womb.

Later, Lucia had destroyed everything, in fire. All the Leper Queen had seen was a wall of pure white fire pass over her life, giving birth to the new her.

Monster.

"Don't patronize me," the Leper Queen said. She would have curled her lip if she had one to curl.

"I'm most decidedly not," He said with a smile. "You've been charbroiled. You're like medium-rare steak to me. This body literally salivates when its eyes look at you, in response to the appetite you call up. So yes, you look delicious."

"Sick," the Leper Queen replied. "My orders?"

He held up an envelope. "You're going to like this one. Real direct, to-the-point…aw shucks, why bother with wasting trees? You're going to capture the primary target…and inject my new host with your wonderful legacy derivative."

The Leper Queen's eyes widened ever so slightly (difficult to do, because they were sans eyelids).

"What? Won't the body be damaged?"

"Not at all. Or it will be, just that it won't matter. I'll fix it up soon enough…and there's some other variables in my plan that I haven't made everyone privy to."

The Leper Queen paused. "Why not?"

He smiled. "Because it's none of your business. We have our bargain. I get the body, you get your species pure and unmarred by the 'mutant menace'."

"There's still the body you will be inhabiting," the Leper Queen said. "I'll have to exterminate it too."

"All in due time," He said, smiling wider.

…

"Laura, it's the size of a peanut, and you don't even know what sex it is yet," Julian grumbled. "It's not going to be born for another four months, at least. I really doubt it's going to care that we don't have everything yet."

"I can't believe you'd take that attitude," Laura said accusingly. "I want to get these things while I'm still mobile, and before I'm as big as a—"

"Last time, you were out fighting Magneto till you were, like, five months along. You should be just fine."

"That's not the point," Laura said dismissively. "Hold this—I'm going in."

Julian reluctantly accepted the bag shoved into his hand, rolled his eyes, then followed the determined girl into the store full of infant accessories, telling himself to suck it up since he was kind of at fault. This time.

About half an hour (and two hundred dollars) later, the pair emerged holding shopping bags stuffed to the hilt with various items, Laura talking animatedly.

"I can't believe they didn't have this kind of crap when Nate and Rach were newborns," Laura said, gushing as she peered into a bag. "So much has happened in baby tech in a year!"

"I don't think that qualifies as tech," Julian said.

"Say that again when you're juggling a shit-filled diaper while trying to keep the baby occupied," Laura said, wrinkling her nose.

"Must've been hard for you, not being telekinetic," Julian replied smoothly. "I've never touched a single one of those disgusting bacteria farms."

"First of all—I think you're excluding a certain little incident," Laura said.

"Ugh. I was just done getting over the trauma. You suck," Julian mumbled. They headed into the food court, Laura in the lead, her eyes set on a certain dessert store. He rolled his eyes as she reached it, and began reading the menu.

"Banana supreme. Orange marmalade. Strawberry Confections. Banana fudge. And second, they aren't 'bacteria farms', Keller. They're cleaner than you."

"Pfft."

"Caramel Supreme it is," Laura said suddenly. "A large. And a Banana Pecan Delight. Large."

"But I want—" Julian started.

"They're both for me," Laura interrupted.

…

At home, Julian tried to walk softly and not jostle the girl-slash-woman in his arms. She'd fallen asleep on the couch watching TV with him, and her neck had been crooked at an uncomfortable angle.

He laid her down on the bed and brushed her hair out of her sleeping face, thinking that he was grateful he could still pick her up, despite the metal lining her skeleton. His expression tightened, thinking about the monsters
who'd done this to her, and thought back to how he'd punished Kimura.

SHRRRIP, Kimura's skin falling to the floor, with a soft noise, like a pile of laundry.

Julian froze on the thought, and he scowled. He wondered if he'd hurt her enough.

"Mmm," Laura said, suddenly waking. She turned her head and looked at him, then frowned. "Whassup? You look—"

"Never mind," he said, with a final voice. "Go to sleep."

Laura didn't need much coaxing.

...

"Guys, the point of today's exercise will be learning to work as a team, one step at a time," Julian said to the row of teens standing in front of him—all wearing training uniforms—even his brother, who was standing with arms
folded, as far from the others as he could manage.

All seven of them. That left the seemingly fictional Mullinix, who had never bothered to show up for a single practice session.

"Alone," Ruth mumbled. "Very alone. Trapped in a box, yes."

Julian ignored her. "Each of you guys are going to stand on the disc with your name on it. There will be a challenge in it, when we fire up the Danger Room." He thought back to the time Frost had run the Hellions through
this simulation, and gave an involuntary shudder. His ears had really hurt. "Except for one person, who won't get a disk. They will be the key to releasing the next person, and so forth. This is really about strategy, realizing
what each of your teammates is good for."

"This is a dumb idea," James said loudly. "And I'm confused as hell."

"You suck at explaining things!" Sylvia added.

"Just turn it on," Logan advised. "They'll get it."

"I think we have to take Mullinix out of the program," Julian said. "Otherwise they're gonna be screwed."

Logan made an mmmm noise, just as the Danger Room doors hissed open to reveal Ms. Frost—and a tall, thin, ungainly-looking boy.

Ms. Frost did not look pleased.

"I believe you were looking for this," she said icily. Her fingers were clenched like talons on the boy's shoulder. "Julian, Logan, students…I would like for you to meet Jacob Mullinix."

Mullinix looked down.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Logan grinned. Emma shot a glare at him, then shoved the boy into the room and turned. "Have fun," she said.

"Uh, hi," Julian said, as the boy shoved his hands in his pockets, looking glum and out-of-place.

Logan grunted. "You're supposed to be tank?" The boy didn't look it, but then there were enough strange mutations out there to make him learn not to judge a book by its cover.

"Dunno," Mullinix said. He had a southern accent.

"Show us what you got, kid," Logan grunted, as Julian glanced at his clipboard doubtfully.

"It don't work that way," the boy drawled. "Somethin' got t' come at me fer that—"

"I've decided I really don't care," Logan interrupted. "Just shove 'em in the damn simulation. I got beer an' a good book waitin'."

Julian sighed, and proceeded to start the simulation that he and his team had run themselves a few years ago.

It seemed like forever.

…

"How'd it go?" Laura asked, while cutting a piece of chicken into tiny chunks for Nate with a claw.

"Fine," Julian said. "It was weird, being on the other side of the glass, you know?"

"Yeah," she said. Nate made a complaining noise and pushed her hand out of the way, eager to get to his food. Laura leaned down and whispered something to the boy; his small face split into a smile and he released a giggle.

Julian watched, and felt the same strange sensation, of being on the other side of the glass, watching.

Laura seemed so happy and content, with the family she'd made, fought to hold together and literally suffered through hell to stay with.

It couldn't last.

…

"I think that can be arranged," Daken murmured. "Quite easily. I will contact you when the opportunity presents itself, you can be sure."

His phone snapped shut and was slipped into the drawer by the time the footsteps reached the point of audibility he had measured down the hall. The feet creating them belonged to a female—he stiffened as the scent reached
his nostrils. His father's clone, Laura Keller. The bitch.

The footsteps passed, accompanied by another pair. She had walked past his door with the Japanese girl—Ashida—the one who had miraculously escaped being splattered all over the Rockefeller center. He thought it might have
been a greater destiny for herself than anything else she had planned.

Yet they were not his primary targets, not the reason he was here. Finally he would be working with it directly.

He closed his eyes and relaxed.