Note: I'm adding some scenes/lines to the story, to spice things up. Enjoy!
EDITED 6/10/07
Chapter 4: Corruption of the Mind and Soul
The Lost City, where the beings commonly known as the Old Ones once dwelled, was where Pietro, Cain and Victor had gathered the children.
Kids of all shapes and sizes, ranging from about four to twelve years old stood in front of a large pool, talking to each other nervously.
Meanwhile, the trio themselves were examining the box of M'Krann Crystals taken from the church.
"Look at what our brother was hiding…" Pietro said. "Powers from the Terrigan Mist…with their power, we will be unbeatable…" And with that, hee picked up a shining green stone and let its powers be abosrbed into his body.
At about the same time, Scott was driving towards the Lost City. As he did, his mind wandered back…
When Jean awoke, she found Scott standing in front of a window.
"Fred and Todd are out looking, if you're wondering."
Jean sat up on the bed and turned to face him. "You…have the Legacy Virus don't you…? So you're going to give up and die, is that it?"
"There's no cure…"
"Yeah, but that's not stopping Dorian, is it? Don't run away! We can fight it together!"
Silence greeted her statement, and the woman looked down sadly.
"I guess that only works for real families…"
"Jean…" Scott's voice was pained. "I'm not fit to help anybody. Not my friends, or my family…heck, I don't have much of a family anymore.
The woman rolled her eyes. "Dilly dally, shilly shally." She said. Scott turned and stared at her. "Dilly dally, shilly shally." She repeated.
"I think she means you have to move on."
Startled, Scott turned to look up at the doorway, where Fred was standing.
"Did you find them?" Jean asked hopefully.
The corpulent man just shook his head, saying, "No, but we did get a witness saying Pietro's gang took them."
"Where?" Scott asked.
"They're at their base…the Lost City."
And now he was zooming down the empty dirt road with skeletal, luminous trees on either side, which gave the whole area and eerie look to it.
Scott narrowed his eyes. Pietro and his cronies had to be stopped at all costs.
Speaking of whom, Pietro was talking to the crowd of children. Victor and Cain stood behind him, keeping an eye on Rahne, who was standing there nervously.
"Father has given me a special gift." He told them. "It is the power to fight against a planet that torments its people. She gave this gift to all her children, yes that's right; you and I are part of the same family!" His smile grew bigger as he continued, "We were when we inherited our Father's legacy from the Terrigan Mist!"
Then his smiled faded, only to be replaced by a look of disgust. "But…the planet doesn't approve of this. It's trying to hold us back, and that's why it's causing us pain and filling us with doubt! But now I will heal you…and we shall go to Father together!"
He began glowing with an eerie light as he said this. "We will join together and take out revenge on the planet!" Pietro walked into to water, which was instantly turned an inky black by his power. "Now…do as I do." He reached into the water with cupped hands and took a drink.
Then he smiled at the children, saying, "See? That wasn't so bad, was it?"
One by one, the children walked into the water—the younger ones were somewhat nervous, seeing as most of them didn't know how to swim—but they went in anyway.
Rahne, watching the scene in silent horror, saw her friend Dorian among the crowd, lifting his hand to his face to drink the contaminated liquid.
"Dorian!" She screamed, trying to get his attention.
The boy looked up at her, but his eyes seemed colder now, not friendly and full of light like they usually were.
Suddenly, Victor looked up with a start.
"What is it?" Cain asked.
"…Someone's coming…."
Pietro turned towards them, smiling cruelly. "Well, well…it looks as if our brother has finally decided to join us."
Rahne quickly realized who he was talking about, and she was filled with hope.
"Scott's coming!" She exclaimed. "And when he gets here, he's gonna kick your butts!"
The silver-haired man walked up to her and bent down so they were eye-to-eye.
"I don't think so little girl. We have some…surprises planned for your friend that will surely take care of him…"
He smiled evilly as he said this.
Meanwhile, Scott was driving along the path, when he suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a blank white void.
"…Huh…? What is this place? I feel like…I've been here before…"
Then he felt a familiar presence standing behind him, a warm, friendly, and somewhat familiar aura.
"Ya'll came…even though you feel like you're gonna break…that's a good sign…" A gloved hand rested on his arm, and Scott recognized the voice as belonging to his long-dead friend Marie "Rouge" Gainsborough. "So…why did y'all come?"
"I think…I want to be forgiven, more than anything…" He answered.
"By who, I wonder?"
He turned to look behind him, but found himself back on his bike, driving along the lonely road.
What the heck was that? A vision…? He wondered.
Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted when gunshots rang out through the still air.
Cain, Victor and Pietro appeared suddenly, with Pietro waving his hand and scores of children suddenly popped up out of nowhere. Scott swerved to avoid them, and ended up falling off his bike in the process.
He tried to get up, but Pietro put a blade to his neck, saying, "I'm so glad you could make it."
"I'm only here for the kids." Scott answered.
Pietro ignored him, and motioned towards Scott, telling the amassed children, "See this man right here? He's our big brother…but in our flock, he's what you'd call a black sheep."
"Scott!" Rahne yelled.
Pierto spun to face her, but that was a big mistake on his part. Scott grabbed his sword and rushed him, but Peitro did a back flip to escape.
In the resulting chaos, Rahne managed to get away. Dorian was the only person to see her go…but for some reason, he just let her run away.
Meanwhile, Victor fired at Scott while Cain rushed towards him, and the two began striking and dodging the other's blows.
Cain managed to send his opponent back a few feet, but the younger man recovered quickly and charged, however, Cain grabbed him and threw him forward.
Scott then had to face Victor, who usied to guns to fire at him.
Scott separated his blade into two and fought on fiercely. Suddenly, Cain punched the ground, sending up a wave of earth towards Scott. Victor jumped into the air to fire at Scott a few times. Then the young man swung one of his blades downwards, creating and arc of blue energy that hit collided with the all of earth, causing a pillar of earth and blue energy to rise into the air.
Then Cain punched him and sent him flying before Victor bounced off Cain and fired repeatedly.
The three combatants leapt about in a deadly dance of death, neither side seeming victorious.
Scott managed to get into the air, but Victor was after him, firing away and shooting one of Scott's blades out of his hands, where it became lodged in a tree.
Scott himself landed on a branch of a nearby tree, and jumped for his sword, grabbing the handle and pulling himself up on the blade.
Damn…these guys are good!
Below, Cain struck the trunk of the tree Scott was on, causing it to topple over. At the same time, Victor landed on the same tree and started firing again. Scott pulled out his sword and started blocking the bullets. Cain jumped into the air and punched the falling tree. The part the combatants were on shattered, but the fighters themselves were in the air.
Scott briefly landed on another tree, where he reconnected his swords and pushed himself off towards Pietro, who waited for him eagerly.
Their blades clashed repeatedly, and then Pietro raised his weapon in anticipation for the final blow…
Suddenly, Pietro had to jump back as a swirling mass of scarlet appeared out of nowhere, forcing the combatants to the ground. Scott hit the dirt, hard, and his cell phone fell out and ended up falling into a nearby pool.
The crimson mass swirled around the young man, and a hand holding a gun emerged from behind it, firing at Pietro. Cain and Victor tried to attack, but the mass, now carrying Scott's body somehow, leapt about, firing as well as lashing out with a set of razor-sharp claws.
Finally, the crimson blur rose through the tree branches and vanished out of sight.
Pietro gritted his teeth angrily.
"So, now what do we do?" Victor asked.
The silver-haired man swung to face them. "Get the children and head to Brink!" He told them. "This ends now…"
Meanwhile, in a location far from where the battle had taken place, Scott had recovered and was crouching beside yet another pool. Standing nearby was the enigmatic Logan Valentine, who was watching him warily.
"I knew I couldn't help anyone…" Scott said apathetically. He looked up at his companion. "Do you know anything about this?"
"I've come here often, so I've been keeping an eye on Pietro and his little gang." Logan answered. He put a hand on Scott's arm, and the younger man cringed, feeling the effects of the virus rushing through his body.
"The Legacy Virus is a symptom of alien matter that infests the body. The body tries to eliminate it but over compensates."
Logan removed his hand and started walking around Scott as he continued. "In side our bodies is a current, like the Terrigan Mist, that fights out any malevolent intruders."
Scott raised an eyebrow. "Intruders?"
The other man just looked at him. "The Magento gene, Ensababur's memetic legacy."
"How do you know all this?' Scott asked.
Logan turned away. "John and Tabitha…they were brought here half-dead, and must have been brutally tortured. I did what I could to help them, but only time will tell."
"Tortured?"
The man shrugged. "They had it coming, since they found Ensabanur's head."
Scott's eyes widened behind his visor, not that Logan could see, anyway. "So when Pietro says he's looking for Father…"
"Heaven's dark harbinger, the calamity, Ensabanur." Logan finished. "If they wanted to, they could recreate Magneto."
"So what is Pietro then?" Scott asked.
"I'm not sure, but I don't think I want to know." Logan replied.
Suddenly there was rustling in some nearby bushes, and Scott jumped to his feet, sword at the ready…then Rahne ran out, looking distressed.
"Rahne!"
The girl ran up to him, burying her face in his shirt. "Scott! Dorian and Jean…!"
"Shh…it's all right. Jean's okay."
"I wanna talk to her!" Rahne shouted.
Scott reached for his cell phone, and then cursed silently when he realized he lost it. Rahne looked at Logan. "Do you…?"
The man just shook his head.
"You don't have a phone?!" She said incredulously.
"Hey Logan," Scott interrupted, "Will you bring Rahne to Jean? I'm gonna go see if the people at Wynecorp have a few answers.
"I can't do that." Logan said solemnly.
"But…"
Rahne backed away. "Forget it, Scott! You never pay any attention to us!"
The young man crouched down to face the girl. "Rahne…please give me some time. There's a battle to be fought, but it's not that simple. Do you understand?"
"No I don't!" The girl yelled back.
"Scott…are you sure this is about fighting?" Logan asked him.
The young man said nothing as a memory came to the front of his mind…
"Where are they?" He asked.
"They're at their base in the Lost City." Todd answered.
He nodded, "Go, I'll talk to Jason." He turned to leave, but Jean stopped him.
"Stop running! I know, even if you find the kids you might not be able to help them, and maybe something bad will happen that can't be undone. But don't think about that now! You think you've got it so damn hard. Well, you hate being all alone, so let other people in. Sure you don't answer your phone, but I don't see you throwing it out, either."
"You go then. The base is all yours." Fred told him. Then he and his partner walked out.
"So which is it?" Jean asked. "A memory? Or us?"
As he thought, he felt like he was in the white void again.
"I…let you die…"
There was a sigh. "Dilly, dally, shilly shally. Isn't it time ya start forgivin'?"
"Do you think our sins were ever forgiven?" Scott asked, somewhat awkwardly.
Logan shrugged. "I've never tried." He answered.
Scott blinked. "You never tried…?" Shaking his head, he turned towards Rahne. "Come on, let's go."
The girl smiled. "Alright."
As she ran towards him, Scott looked back to Logan. "Well, I'm gonna try, and I'll phone in the verdict."
Then the two walked off, hand in hand.
Meanwhile, Scott's phone still floated down into the pool's depths, a few messages still playing.
"Hello Scott, this is Remy speakin'. How's yer work goin'? Ah saw yer flyer…how do ya stay in business anyways? Well, ya certainly never change. If it's okay with ya, I'd like to help out. Well, ah'll cal, back later, I guess."
"Heeey! What's up! It's me, Kitty!"
Their messages and several others seemed to blend together and become hard to understand, but then a single message made itself clear.
"Ah' neva blamed ya…not even once. Ya came fer me…and that's all that matters."
Then the cell phone hit the pool's bottom where its batteries finally gave out.
To be continued…