They were in the last stretch of their drive back to Atlanta, Marcos estimated they had maybe an hour left and then they'd be in the relative safety of the compound. The teens were sharing the queen bed and were still sleeping, finally able to rest after a few hours on the road.
Marcus couldn't wait to get back to his bed and try to get a few hours himself. Even with Reed driving, he found his mind was still too worked up from the mission.
It especially didn't help to find out that Gemma had gone on her own little side mission to steal office supplies of all things. He would be more willing to forgive her if it were food or even weapons, something the Mutant Underground truly needed. He couldn't imagine risking his life for pens and chairs, but for whatever reason in her impulsive mind, she thought those things were worth it.
As useful as her powers were, he desperately wanted Clarice back because at least she was a full-grown adult who would never think of doing such a thing. Gemma was better off at the compound with supervision. Maybe they could use her more on missions in the future in a couple years, if she even stuck around that long.
A teen with impulse control issues that could go anywhere in the world? He wouldn't bet money on her sticking around.
If she didn't know how to follow orders, then there may have to be hard conversations on moving her on from the Underground. They weren't babysitters nor were they her parents. It wasn't up to them to make her grow up, they had to think of all the other mutants and families that relied on them for their safety.
Whatever Gemma's motivations were, she compromised the safety of herself and the Underground with her little side mission. If she had gotten caught, then Trask Industries would have had a way to bypass their security and literally appear right in the heart of the Atlanta Mutant Underground.
Right to Lorna and his unborn child.
If they could somehow turn Pulse, who was loyal to the mutant cause and a combat veteran, then they'd have no problem turning Gemma who was clearly selfish and looking out only for her own wants and needs.
It was not a conversation he wanted to have with the rest of the leadership, but it was something they would have to have. No mutant was so useful or powerful that they could just do as they pleased.
After checking on his children, Reed had come up to the front to keep Marcos company. They were quiet for a moment as neither had much in common, but Marcos actually wanted to tell the other man something,
"Hey," Marcos started when Reed sat down, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop on before, but I heard you talking about his powers."
"Yeah, not sure I did a great job there," Reed tried to lighten the topic by being self-deprecating.
"Keep at it," Marcos encouraged. "It'll be easier for him if he has someone to talk to, especially his father."
Reed could read between the lines and figured that Marcos was speaking from experience. So many of the mutants that had passed through his office had been living on the streets, kicked out of their home. He liked to think he believed in justice, and that he had always tried to give the teens a lighter sentence than the adults. Now all he could think about was if it were Andy or Lauren in their shoes, living under bridges and getting desperate to survive on their own.
"Did you always want to be a dad?" Marcos asked after a few minutes of silence, he figured he'd take the opportunity to have a talk; man to man, father to father to be talk.
"Yeah, I guess I did," Reed told him with a smile, nostalgic for the time when he and Caitlin were planning the future of their family. He remembered being so excited and scared in equal measure, but both certain they wanted to be parents.
They weren't best friends or anything, but Reed felt better in his and Caitlin's decision to stay with the Mutant Underground. Talking with Marcos felt grounding, and that mutants and humans were more alike and connected than he previously thought. Right now, they were just two men talking about their family. Part of being a parent was to constantly worry if they were making the right decision. Not only for their safety, but for their future.
From what he had briefly seen of the files, the more worried he got of what Trask Industries and Sentinel Services was planning.
"How about you?" Reed was curious. He wasn't proud that he had more or less used Polaris' pregnancy as leverage to get her to cooperate, but she was surprised when he gave her the results of her physical when they had first brought her in. Unplanned pregnancy didn't necessarily mean unwanted pregnancy. Still, with their lifestyle, a child was not something to have on a whim.
Marcos sighed at the question and wanted to be careful with his answer,
"I don't know," which wasn't exactly an answer, but it was honest. "I didn't know my dad much, really. Even before he kicked me out for being a mutant. I was the oldest, the heir. Supposed to run the family business, make him look good. Safe to say, I disappointed him."
Reed couldn't help but feel a fatherly sympathy towards a young man who was clearly hurting and scared. He leaned in and gave a comforting hand to Marcos' shoulder as he drove,
"Listen, if we all turned out just like our fathers, I wouldn't be much of a dad myself," he wasn't going to go into the hurtful details of being abandoned, but he knew Marcos' pain in some form or another. He also would never say he was the perfect father, but he'd be damned if anyone accused him of not loving his children or not trying to do the best to do right by them.
"Then how'd you figure it out?" Marcos knew it was probably an unfair question, but perhaps there was just some magical answer that a good dad knew and would share with him. "You know, parenting," he clarified.
"I haven't," which was not the answer Marcos was hoping for, but it was honest. "But I can tell you this. Nothing that they can do would make you love 'em less. You start there and then you do the best you can."
Which was all anyone could fairly expect from life. Marcos appreciated that Reed didn't try to give him insincere platitudes or make it seem like parenting was just some natural instinct good people had.
It also made him resent his own father more, who clearly did not start from a place of unconditional love as Reed had.
They drove in silence as Marcos took in Reed's words and he could honestly say he felt better about his impending fatherhood.
"With your little one on the way, have you considered going to Mexico? Or back to Columbia?" Reed asked, partly curious as to Marcos' plan. He trusted the other man and possibly his plans would affect future plans he had with his own family.
Both countries had more relaxed laws on mutants, and Reed wouldn't blame him one bit for taking his child away from the madness. He still questioned daily if he had made the right choice to stay, and his children were nearly adults. If he had an infant, they would have been in Mexico without a doubt in his mind.
Marcos sighed and couldn't deny it was a possibility, at least until the baby was older. It was one thing to put themselves on the front line, but with a child? An infant at that? It was another hard conversation he would have to have with Lorna.
"It's…something to consider," he admitted and looked in the rearview mirror to see if the teens were still asleep. He didn't need rumors to start before he even had the conversation. "The baby will probably be a mutant, but there's no way to tell before they hit puberty and manifest, unless it's born with physical mutations."
Which was a whole separate worry. It'd be one thing if the baby was born with green hair which could be easily hidden, but if there were differences to its skin, eyes, or ears? Then they'd have to be ultra considerate of what to do. It was one thing to raise a mutant, it was another to raise an obvious mutant, especially in the States.
Have a few conversations with Clarice and anyone would know how hard a life could be for an obvious mutant. Not that it would be a walk in the park in other countries, as the more different one looked, the harder it was.
He knew Polaris was never one to run from a fight, but how could they raise a child in the Mutant Underground? How could they both be part of the fight? Would they take turns on missions? They sort of did that anyway, but he thought it'd be much different if one stayed home with the baby and worried if the other would come back. Would they be compromised worrying about who they left behind?
All of their friends and allies were also in the Underground. What would happen to the baby if both he and Polaris died?
These were all worries that plagued his mind since finding out he was going to be a father.
"It's all worth it, you know," Reed told him. When Marcus turned a questioning brow to him, "All the things you're worried about, thinking about right now," as he knew better than anyone what a worried father looked like, "It's all worth it once you hold your baby. I know nothing I say will stop the million things you think you have to answer right now, but all you can do is take it one day at a time. I know it's not exactly the same, but Caitlin had a lot of medical problems when she was pregnant with Andy, to the point the doctor even suggested termination. But Caitlin wouldn't hear it, she said we were going to fight for our son and by God did she. All the worry of losing her, of losing him, worried that Lauren would maybe have to grow up without a mother, none of it mattered anymore when I held him for the first time. Even when I was imprisoned by Sentinel Services, as long as my family was safe and out of their hands, it was all worth it. Polaris tore screws out of my knees and I didn't feel any of it when I got back to my family and hugged them, seeing that they were safe and alive."
Marcos wonders how he would have turned out if his own father had loved him like Reed loved his kids. He really hoped Andy and Lauren knew how lucky they were. He'd kill to be annoyed by his parents if it meant that he knew how much they loved him.
He promised himself to try to give more grace to Reed and Caitlin. A pain they might be, but they were genuinely trying to do the best for their kids and for the Mutant Underground. He could appreciate Caitlin's school and taking over medical care where she could. Reed's insight and expertise gave them a fighting chance against Sentinel Services and Trask Industries. The Hound Program and the new robots were coming after them regardless if Andy's powers had manifested and they had no choice but to join them. Perhaps it was divine intervention that the teen's powers had emerged when they did.
"One day at a time," Marcos repeated and although it was a cliché, he did feel like it gave him some comfort. Some things were just out of his control, and he could only pray and deal with things as they came.
He just knew he would be there for his child in a way his own father never was for him.
When they finally arrived back at the compound, there was a new pile of broken office furniture outside the bank that hadn't been there when he left. He sort of remembered that John had told him that Gemma had helped them move stuff from the upper floors, but the items looked to be more broken than they needed to be.
He only shook his head and decided he was not going to deal with it because he had literally driven all night and was too tired.
Polaris had greeted him on his way to his bed, and he would never pass up an opportunity to kiss his girlfriend.
She gave an affectionate nuzzle to his chin and hugged him closely. She never liked it when they didn't go on missions together, as she thought no one would have their backs like each other.
"I'm going to get a few hours in," of sleep he told her, "but leadership needs to have a talk about Gemma."
She gave a small wince as she knew the conversation had to be had and was coming.
"Get some sleep," she advised as she nodded in acknowledgement that the talk had to happen. "We can all talk when we have a clear head...and maybe remember that it was her first mission and she's only 15."
Marcos frowned a little as he thought Lorna gave where she stood already. Perhaps he was a bit grumpy because he was in no mind to give grace to Gemma at all.
She smiled at his cranky face, but she knew him well enough that the talk would only be a talk. There would be no actual consideration of kicking Gemma out, but she would volunteer to be the one to explain to her the importance of not doing side missions, even if they were done with good intensions. She gave him one last kiss before he headed to bed.
Across the other side of the bank where the Struckers made their home in a backroom, she saw Gemma teleport to Andy and gave him an excited hug.
If Lorna didn't know better, she would have thought they hadn't seen each other in weeks instead of a few hours.
Maybe it was the hormones, but she teared up a little at how happy they were to see each other. The soft look in Andy's eyes and smile that threatened to split his face. She could almost forget that they weren't all in constant danger, and that there was hope for the future. She desperately wanted a better place for Andy and Gemma to grow, and just be teenagers. She placed her hands on her belly, and she wondered what world her baby would grow up in.
Reality settled in and she knew Marcos well, she couldn't help but know how his mind worked. She knew that he worried about her and the baby, and that he would not take Gemma's side mission very well if his temper was allowed to get the better of him.
He wouldn't care about anything else other than protecting her and their baby. Part of her was angry too, the supplies were not worth the risk.
Lorna had a pragmatic side, however. The supplies were things they could use, and it showed just how well Gemma could use her powers. The teen managed to steal probably several grand worth of stuff within minutes.
If they were ever in a pinch, she could do the same for food and survival supplies.
The food she was growing within minutes would have cost them thousands as well, and she did so without having to be asked. What she grew was fresh, nutritious, and plentiful. Lorna would never complain and would not tolerate complaints about the food they could afford so far such as the MREs, but she knew that it was not healthy to try to survive on them for long and they had been doing just that for years.
Teens made mistakes, Lorna knew that more than most, and she wouldn't throw Gemma out over one mistake. Especially since they had just lost Clarice.
John had gone out on errands to get Gemma the supplies she had asked for, and to hopefully find Blink and bring her back. Lorna loved Dreamer like a sister, but as someone who had been gaslit by therapists in mental hospitals and sometimes had her own mind and body betray her, she didn't blame Clarice for being as angry as she was.
Lorna knew if anyone had purposefully messed with her mind, even if it was coming from a place of love for John who she loved like a brother, the bank probably wouldn't still be standing from her rage. There were some lines that just shouldn't be crossed with each other.
She knew they weren't going to kick Dreamer out as well. It was one mistake, and more mistakes on top of that by not coming clean to Clarice. She could come up with a million ways it could have gone better, but she knew in the heat of battle and fighting for their lives, sometimes they could only focus on one thing to the detriment of others. Dreamer would have done anything for John, just like Lorna would have done anything for Marcos.
The victim of their desperation, however, she did not expect to understand or forgive them at the same time.
Perhaps another hard conversation to have is to put our foot down on using our powers against each other, even with good intentions. We don't even have the excuse of being dumbass kids. We should know better.
Although her mornings were filled with sickness, by the afternoon she was starving, and she went to the kitchen to see what Gemma had grown.
While she had done a late mission and then helped clear out the upper floor, albeit with a lot of noise, Gemma had also grown more food to feed the incoming refugees.
In addition to peaches, tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce, she had grown potatoes from a supply run and pinto beans from an old bag of dry beans they happened to have.
Having grown up with not a lot of money and then struggling since she could remember, Polaris couldn't help but think of things in terms of how much things cost. She had always been painfully aware of what she had in her pocket or the one time she actually had a bank account. She has made the difficult decisions between eating or some other necessity.
With seeds Gemma happened to have in her many pockets and a few items John and Dreamer had made a quick run for, the Mutant Underground in Atlanta was as supplied with food as any food stall in a Farmer's Market. They were able to feed all the refugees that had come through, and many more that came from Alpharetta, all for under $20.
Polaris still wasn't sure why Gemma wanted crawling roses, but she was starting to simply trust the young mutant knew what she was doing and went with it.
If we can get her to jump with people…there's no way we could even think of kicking her out.
Polaris was curious as to Gemma's combat capabilities. As helpful as the teleporter was, they were on the brink of an all-out war with humans. She needed to do more than just run away or grow them food.
Lorna thought her ability to create "ice knives" was a promising indication that Gemma might know how to turn her powers deadly.
She was also wondering if perhaps Gemma could mentor Naya, a new refugee who had hydrokinesis. Perhaps in time, Naya could be another elemental manipulator and have power over earth, air, and fire. Even if all she could do was control water, Gemma had a better handle on her power and could hopefully give the other girl tips.
Although Lorna wasn't totally keen on going deep into the Appalachian Mountains, perhaps there was something to being somewhere totally out of the way and miles and miles from humans in order to test their powers. As much as she wanted to train anyone willing, they were still limited to the area they were in. Pedro's powers only went so far, if they made too much of a ruckus, then they would possibly gain the attention of humans.
If she recalled the limited mutant history they taught, the X-Men did just that in Upstate New York. The Xavier Mansion was essentially in the middle of nowhere, the nearest neighboring estate almost a county over.
Maybe instead of moving all mutants across the border, we should recruit for the fight here and train them somewhere safe.
Polaris wondered if that suggestion could make it to Angelique and the higher ups in the Mutant Underground. Getting mutants across the border to safety was important work, but she didn't know if it was realistic for her and Marcos to think they could keep doing it with a baby. Maybe if there was a school or training center for mutants, they could do that for a couple of years. It certainly sounded more stable and secure than constantly going out, finding mutants who were in trouble, and then going on the dangerous journey from safehouse to safehouse to Mexico.
Gemma and Andy didn't waste any time scurrying away from his family to hang with each other. He was already out of earshot, or was purposefully ignoring her, from his mom who had tried and failed to get him to stay.
Polaris was about to be a mom and could almost sympathize with Caitlin, but she understood a teen's desire for privacy. She didn't blame Gemma's for creating an impenetrable wall of vines to keep people out of her room. No one else in the bank had such privacy except the leadership who slept in their own wing of the building. Anyone else would do the exact same thing if they could.
I'm not either of their parents but I wonder if we ought to be worried about two 15-year olds having a closed off and private room…we certainly don't need two babies about to be born here…there's no way Caitlin won't say something to Andy…should I say something to Gemma? Would either of them even listen?
She could remember quite painfully how bullheaded she had been as a teen and refused to listen to anyone once she decided she wanted to do something. She didn't like getting spoken too and she imagined the other side of that conversation would be just as awkward.
Polaris decided she didn't want that responsibility just yet and went to go eat something.
Andy helped himself to some of Gemma's snacks, she was glad that he was eating and felt comfortable enough to just eat instead of asking several times if it was alright.
"How was the drive back?" she started off as she dug into the peanut butter jar he opened, with a spoon. They both lounged on the moss-covered floor, which lent to their comfort.
"Boring. Marcos and dad drove back without stopping, except for a few bathroom breaks and breakfast. Lauren and I mainly just slept the whole way back. Marcos had called John at some point, he seemed mad that you had stolen stuff?"
Gemma made a face as she was aware that her little side trip wasn't sanctified by leadership.
"Yeah, I had raided the supply closet at the Federal Building before I went back here…but I wasn't caught, obviously, and Sage and Shatter really like the chairs I got."
"You got chairs?" of all the things he would think of stealing if he had powers like hers, chairs were not one of them.
"Really nice ergonomic chairs. It'll save their backs. I also got pens and notebooks for your mom's school, and just stuff I thought we could use."
She also really liked office supplies because she was an office supply gremlin, but she didn't think he needed to know that.
"Marcos is probably going to give you a lecture or something," he warned as he really didn't think Marcos was happy about the stealing.
"Blah," but she wasn't too worried about it, she knew she could survive without the Mutant Underground, she just needed to figure out a way to keep in touch with Andy.
She did eye a corner of the room where her bed was, and where she had stashed what she stole from the judge. "You can keep a secret, right?" she knew he had kept all the other stuff she'd stolen as secret, but this was a bigger secret than taking a few loaves of bread and peanut butter.
"Yeah," he really wanted her to trust him with anything. "You can tell me anything, I won't ever go to Marcos or anyone," he promised.
He was either sincere or she was a sucker for green eyes, because she immediately believed him.
She got up and went to the corner of her room, and with a wave from her hand the moss that she had used for her bed had retreated.
Andy also got up to look at what she had hidden, and he had gasped when he saw several stacks of $100 bills.
"Holy shit, did you rob a bank?" he wouldn't tell anyone, but he didn't think she would be so daring to actually rob a bank. He was equal parts impressed and stressed because perhaps she was going too far and putting herself in danger.
"No, this is from the judge. He had a safe filled with all of this. I thought it would be of better use here. It's $500k."
"Wow…" he was a bit speechless because he had never seen so much money in person in his life. He reached down to kneel, and grabbed one of the stacks and took in its weight and then flipped through the bills as if it were a deck of cards.
"What are you going to do with it?" he asked as he stood back up to look at her.
"I was going to keep 100k of it as insurance and give the rest to leadership, but now I'll wait and see if they'll be asshats about the stealing. If they're going to be super annoying or even kick me out, then at least I'll have some money to get me through until I know what I want to do."
"There's no way they'll kick you out," he insisted, it'd be the dumbest thing to do in his opinion. Perhaps stealing the supplies wasn't the smartest thing for Gemma to have done, but it wasn't like she had done something truly dangerous.
Gemma really hoped he was right, but she didn't know Marcos or the rest of leadership that well. She really didn't know what to expect or what was expected of her.
"Do you have a go-bag or anything?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I have a small knapsack of toiletries and a change of clothes. John and 'em insist on it, in case the bank ever gets compromised. Why?"
"Keep that 10k, cash is always useful…actually, take 100k. Think of it as payment for a job well done on the mission."
She figured if they were going to be ungrateful for things she stole, then they would only get 300k instead of the 400k she was originally going to give them. She reached down and grabbed nine more stacks.
"Are you serious?" he wasn't sure how to process that she was just going to give him that much money. He could barely hold it all.
"Yeah, we deserve it."
"I don't know where I'd even put it, I share that backroom with my family and as you've seen, there's no privacy."
Gemma made a face as she was certain she'd go insane if she had to be that close with anyone all the time.
"Well, put at least the 10k in your go bag. Then break up a stack and put a few hundred in discreet places you don't think they would notice or ever check. And then keep a few hundred always in your pockets. You can keep the rest here."
He nodded; besides the fact it was essentially free money, he had no plans to be anywhere she wasn't. The money was safe in his opinion. He then pocketed two stacks and tossed the rest back to the hiding place.
"Marcos is going to shit a brick when he sees all this money," Andy could only imagine the look on the older mutant's face. "He's probably going to be mad about more stealing, but there's no way he could turn down so much when the Mutant Underground needs it. What was a judge doing with all of this, anyway?" it just occurred to him it was really weird for a federal judge, or anyone, to just have that much cash in their office.
"I think he was taking kickbacks," which was her only explanation, no one knew for sure except the Judge himself and it wasn't like she was going to ask him. "If he's the only judge who tries mutants under whatever bs law they made up, and Trask Industries is basically using him as a pipeline from mutants on the streets to prison and in their hands for experiments, then I doubt he'd do it for free. They still have to at least pretend they're following the law, and doing this much dirty dealings would land this judge on the other side of the bench. They'd have to make it worth it."
Not that Andy felt bad at taking the money at all, but now he wished they could go into the Judge's personal bank account and steal that money too. It was bad enough they were sending mutants to prison under the flimsiest excuses, but to use them for experiments was a cold dose of reality.
"They don't see us as people," Andy whispered lowly, the realization really hitting him.
Gem softened and placed a hopefully comforting hand on his as he stared at the money without really looking at it.
It was a hard reality that every mutant had to realize sooner or later.
"Last month," and it was hard to think of it feeling like such a long time, but in reality, it was not that long ago, "my dad was helping this judge funnel mutants to Trask…maybe he didn't realize what Trask was doing or that the mutants were going to someplace other than prison…but he didn't question that some mutants just disappeared," Andy couldn't make excuses for his father.
Not when Reed had admitted to not knowing where some went after the mutants had gone through Baton Rouge.
"And I never asked about my dad's work…I never questioned if these mutants were guilty of anything or if the law was wrong…" the truth couldn't be contained in a small box to be ignored in his mind anymore. "I even…" he swallowed hard, unsure if he wanted to admit to his careless language or outright bigotry he used to have.
But Gem looked at him with wide eyes, soft and not judging him. He felt he could be honest, and he wanted to be honest. So often no one in the family wanted to talk about what his family did and their beliefs before they knew he and his sister were mutants. They all wanted to act like their previous life had nothing to do with what was currently happening.
"I used to call them 'muties.' Like I would just say it like it was nothing. While I was being this bigoted little asshole…mutants are on the run. Starving, terrified of being collared in prison, or worse, turned on our own kind…" shame unfurled in his heart, and it had been something that had been bothering him these past few weeks.
It was one of the reasons why he wanted to help the Mutant Underground so much. He was as much part of the problem as Sentinel Services and his father. If he wasn't a mutant, he probably would have continued to at the very least being indifferent, or at worst maybe he would have followed in his father's footsteps and become an attorney that sent mutants away.
He started to tear up and he shook his head, hoping to keep them at bay. He was embarrassed to get so emotional in front of Gem, but she didn't mock him or get awkward at his display. She actually pulled him close to her for a hug,
"My dad is a Purifier," she admitted into his chest, she couldn't even look him in the eye to admit that.
He had stilled, as Purifiers were a notorious mutant hate group, even his father thought they went too far. He hugged her tighter as he realized just how much danger she had been in her own family, and how much she really understood him.
"Whole family is, really. They might not be as vocal, but no one ever corrected him or disagreed…and I have a huge family. Seven months ago, I literally didn't care my family was part of a hate group. The only thing I cared about was my Quinceañera. I was literally throwing fits about who was in my court and the style of my dress. My dad was actively trying to oppress mutants and our rights…and I was fighting with my mother over getting a traditional dress with embroidery in red and gold and I wanted a hot pink princess dress with lights and real Swarovski crystals."
It was a heavy conversation, but he couldn't help the nervous laughter at her having such an elaborate dress.
"Lights? Really?" the gravity of the moment was broken and neither made a mention of him wiping his eyes to remove any evidence of almost crying. She had done the same, it was hard to think of her life before she realized she was a mutant.
"Yeah, it was a huge fight with my mom, and I was digging my heels in. I wanted a huge ballgown," and she reached out her arms as wide as they could go so, he could get an idea of how massive the dress would be, "with a cinched waste, corset top, sweetheart neckline, no sleeves, in this punch you in the face hot pink, fuchsia. My dad was complaining about the price, because either dress was going to be like five grand, minimum."
If Andy had been eating anything, he would have choked at the cost.
"Yeah, besides all the fabric itself, you have to remember these dresses are made to order and then tailored until its perfect. It's really a trial run for a wedding dress," she couldn't help but keep telling the story, "My mom wanted me like covered because she grew up LDS…Mormon" when he didn't seem to know what LDS was, "She converted in order to marry my dad, anyway that's whatever, so she's like really into modesty. Of course, to be more modest was to have extra fabric and she wanted it all embroidered in gold thread, so her heavy ass demask number would have cost even more. She would have had me looking like drapes at Downton Abbey."
Andy felt a little bad for laughing, but Gem laughed too as it was ridiculous.
"Seriously, though. Those assholes put silk fabric on their walls and that's what my mom thought looked nice as a dress. Literally, one of the last things she said to me was that I was 'gaudy' and that she didn't know where I got my taste from. I was like, 'really ma?'" Andy was amused that Gem was really getting into her story, expressing herself with her hands and grand gestures, "You named me Gemma, you pierced my ears before I turned one and gave me diamond studs. Every year since I was born, someone from your side of the family gave me jewelry…obviously I was going to want bling on my dress."
"I feel like my dad owes Lauren a 'thank you' for wanting such a low key Sweet Sixteen," he joked and she laughed,
"Oh, my God, do not get me started on my cousins who had lavish Quinceañera and wanted a Sweet Sixteen."
"Are you fucking serious?" he couldn't imagine having basically the same big party two years in a row.
"Oh yeah, they were like, 'we're also American so that means Sweet Sixteen' and they expected a car."
Andy was finding out a lot about Gemma, namely that she obviously came from money and might have been a little spoiled.
"In fairness, because my cousins had gotten those parties, as did my older brothers and sisters, I fully expected it too…until one night I sneezed too hard, set fire to the couch by accident and then was run off for being a mutant."
She kind of frowned and shrugged her shoulders like it was just something that happened sometimes. He didn't press as he expected it wasn't a night she would prefer to relive.
It didn't seem fair to him that her powers had manifested in such a harmless way, and her parents had kicked her out. Meanwhile, he had nearly leveled a school building and his parents went on the run for him.
Instead of continuing to stand, they sat on her bed, his back against the wall and she nestled herself between his legs with her back to him.
They had an eventful night and were having a hard conversation about their past and how they got to the Mutant Underground.
Andy felt that he could tell Gem more, and it was nice to have someone to talk with. There always seemed to be something going on at the bank, and Gem was the only one who made the effort to just take the time and sit with him.
She leaned back into his embrace, and he curled his long arms around her. He loved how perfectly she fit into the crook of his neck as they hugged each other. He felt like she trusted him, when everyone else seemed to think he was some ticking time bomb.
"My powers manifested at a school dance…I had been having trouble making friends and concentrating. There were some kids who would keep messing with me and my parents found out. My grades were slipping. The day of the dance, they spoke with my guidance counselor and tried to help. That just pissed those guys off more for being told on. Four of them cornered me at the dance and dragged me to the locker room. Dumped me in the showers and turn them on as high and hot as they would go."
There was a slight tremor through the bank, his powers reacting to his memory. Gem pulled his arms closer around her and she rubbed her thumb gently on the back of his hands as she held them.
Her warmth and his fear of hurting her had calmed him down. He knew how destructive his powers could be and she trusted him not to hurt her. Anyone else would have jumped up scared, probably would have run away. She could have easily teleported away at the first sign of danger, but she didn't.
He was calm enough to keep going.
"I remember feeling so…helpless. Humiliated that I didn't know how to or couldn't fight back. I was angry because it was months of feeling like I was losing my mind, because I swore that I had seen…that I had felt this immense power with Lauren. But she acted like nothing happened and I couldn't ask anyone in a family that put away mutants that maybe I had powers."
"You suspected you had powers before?" she was a bit horrified because she would have been an anxious mess if she had suspected she was a mutant in her family.
He told her about a year ago he had been on a picnic with his family, and how he had tripped, and Lauren had caught him. Somehow between them he felt this energy that seemed to flow from him to her.
"Lauren had snatched her hand away like I was contagious or something. Then she never spoke of it and when I tried to talk about it, she would just change the subject. Dad was putting away more and more mutants in jail and talking about how dangerous they were. I couldn't talk to anyone about it and I just…started to shut down."
"I would have been dumb and told my mom if I suspected. Back then I actually believed my parents would love me no matter what, even if they were horrified to have a mutant daughter," it filled Andy with so much sadness and rage that Gem had said that with such defeated acceptance. "At worst I still would have been chased out with a gun…or maybe still pretty bad I would have been sent to Empower. Not sure if being tortured into acting human is a better alternative."
"If I hadn't destroyed the gym, I think my dad would have sent me to Empower too."
"You destroyed the gym?"
Andy could hear the smile in her question.
"Yeah…the school had those pillar showers instead of showerheads across the wall. Those completely crumbled into themselves, and all the assholes had gone flying into the wall or lockers."
"I bet they shit their pants," she snickered, and he was inclined to agree.
"Do you know where they are? Maybe they'd be good guinea pigs for testing if I can jump with people…maybe drop them off in the middle of the Potomac or Atlantic. I can do that, I've been on a lot of boats."
He giggled with her at the dark thought. Another thing he liked about Gem, she had a sense of humour. If he had made a joke about using his powers against his bullies, then his family would have freaked out, including Lauren.
They really think I'm a psycho or something.
Which wasn't a great feeling to have, but with just him and Gem he thought he could let air a few of his darker, vindictive thoughts and not be judged for them.
"Maybe use them as fertilizer for the plants," he recommended better uses for his bullies.
"Yes," she hissed happily. "Maybe bury them alive in the dirt and make the roots drain all their fluids…I wonder if I could actually do that?" she was always curious as to how her powers could be used and did a bit of an evil laugh.
Andy didn't think too deeply on why he thought her evil laugh was so cute.
"I mean technically, all we are made up of is oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus," she further pondered her potential ability to make their enemies fertilizer. "We're filled with stuff plants need to grow."
"Those douchebags would make good target practice, Polaris would be proud that we're practicing our powers in such a productive manner," he said with a bit of a formal air.
They dissolved into giggles and came up with more unhinged ways to get back at those who had been mean to them or were actively hunting them. Each way more violent than the last.
She turned to nuzzle into his neck and pepper his jaw with kisses,
"You may have felt helpless but remember that there had to be four of them to get you. If it had been a fair fight, I think you would have been scrappy enough to kick their ass."
He looked into her dark agate eyes and saw that she meant it. He had always been the scrawny kid in class and even with his new, growing height, he always felt so small compared to others. It especially didn't help that there were men like John around who looked like he could bench press 300 lbs even without mutant powers.
It was a heady powerful thing, for someone to have confidence in him. He thought Gem could have anyone she wanted, and in her old life she probably did, but for some reason she was choosing him, and he would not take that for granted.
As promised, they had made it through the Baton Rouge job and now there was plenty of time for kisses. He leaned down to kiss her and they enjoyed each other's comforting embrace.
Their little macabre bonding moment was disturbed when there was a knock on her vine door and they heard John speak through the foliage,
"Gem, are you in there? We have the stuff you wanted from the nursery."
That had perked her up and she all but hopped up and dragged Andy with her. She caught his frown at being interrupted,
"Oh, don't look like that," she whispered to him so no one outside could hear, she kissed him again to apologize for the disruption, "This will be cool, I promise," and she pulled him from the room.
John had jumped back because he wasn't used to Gem's easy transition of willing the vines to open, it certainly was convenient for her to have in order to get some privacy. She had smiled at him when they had come out, but Andy certainly was not as happy to see him.
John was 15 at one point, so he understood that he probably interrupted something. He did not envy Andy who would probably have a talk with Caitlin and Reed about his new girlfriend. The Struckers definitely seemed to be the type that would forbid their children from having people from the opposite in their room with the door closed.
John wouldn't know as neither of his parents were exactly present and invested in his life.
Given Polaris' pregnancy, he wondered if someone should speak with the two. Perhaps Caitlin and Reed could monitor Andy, but that wasn't true for Gemma as she was on her own. Did any of them really have the right or authority to talk to her about sex?
Human teens could be resourceful when they wanted to be when it came to getting alone time with their boyfriend or girlfriend, Gem could literally teleport wherever she wanted if she wanted to get away from them. Leadership also wasn't interested in policing two teens, even if they would rather not deal with a teen pregnancy.
There's no way this is my problem…is it?
John wondered as he told Gemma the supplies were outside waiting for her, and he then followed her and Andy out of the bank while they held hands.
He was the leader of the cell and if any of the teens who were staying with them for an extended period, or adults for that matter, fell pregnant then that was something that would affect the entire team.
There were several people, mostly those without a family, who were choosing to stay instead of trying to start a new life in Mexico. The bank was slowly but surely turning from a way station into a community.
He was already dreading whenever Polaris and Marcos would have that conversation with him. They were both dedicated mutants to the cause, but a baby would change anyone's priorities and he wouldn't blame them one bit. They really didn't have an alternative, and the bank was only safe as far as they could easily abandon it if the location was compromised. At some point, Polaris would also get too big to go on missions and he wasn't sure if she should be training or going out at all.
He took a deep breath and told himself that he couldn't fix everything right then and there. He decided to focus on whatever Gem thought she could do with the bare root he purchased.
The teen skipped in glee when she saw that he had indeed gotten her fruity petals, which he still couldn't believe was a real rose variety.
"And just this one is enough? The guy at the nursery looked at me funny when I said I just wanted one," he told her as she looked through the stuff in the back of the old Ford truck they used for bulk supplies.
It was just one bare root of a rose bush, with about four stems and a few smaller stems from those.
"Yep, and you got the plant food, that's perfect."
She made quick work to pull apart the bare root into the four stems, then with her powers she made each root and give more stems so now they had four bare roots with four stems each. She did that again and again, until they had even more roots than he saw at the nursery.
A lot of the refugees were curious as to what she was doing and had started to congregate outside. Watching Gem use her powers to grow things was starting to be a favorite form of entertainment.
"John, Andy, Lauren, please take as many as you can hold," and all had obeyed, Andy's sister had come out to join them. "Polaris, and you two, please take some as well."
She didn't really phrase it as a question, and the two teens she had voluntold didn't really fight it. Polaris was always willing to help, and she was curious like everyone else. The teens introduced themselves as Naya and Skyler.
They each carefully held the bare roots to not get stuck with thorns, Gemma on the other hand just grabbed them like they were bunches of carrots. It seemed she was immune to the prickles, and they started at the front gate.
Gemma would create a well and stick in a bare root and then covered it back with dirt, Naya then would use her own hydrokinesis to water and pour a little of the plant food John bought over it. Gem also used her powers to mulch the dead plant debris that covered the forest floor near the fence to act as more fertilizer. They did this about every six feet until they encircled the entire compound. They mainly kept along the fence and also in gaps where the fence should have been if it had broken down.
Once they were back in front of the bank, Gem stood in front of one of the planted roots. She took off her shoes and dug her toes into the ground, as well as her the tips of her fingers when she kneeled down in what looked like a runner's pose.
She took a deep breath and for a few moments, no one was sure what was going on. Her powers didn't manifest any way to show they were activated, which led to a weird pause. Some of them started to look at one another, obviously confused and wondering if they should say something.
Soon, however, they could see that the stems she had planted were growing longer and longer, snaking around the links in the fence and anchor themselves. More and more stems and leaves sprouted, and the hedge grew thicker and thicker. The hedge thickened to be completely opaque, and no one could see beyond, effectively making it a wall.
The plant rose roots all around the compound were doing the same type of growth and meeting with one another, merging until there was a ten-feet-tall hedge of unbroken crawling roses, coral pink blossoms with golden middles bloomed and grew larger than natural.
There was only one entrance to the bank now, just large enough for one car to go in or out. The compound was now much more secure.
If we want to make quick cash, we could probably sell these roses or cheat at a garden show.
Polaris' eyes were wide, and she was proud of Gem. She was proud of mutants and the miracles they could do.
John thought that they could easily get something to create a gate so that only they could be allowed in or out of the compound.
The blossoms were not the only thing Gem had willed to be larger than natural, they saw footlong spikes of thorns emerge and anyone stupid enough to get too close would find themselves impaled.
Lorna could only hope that Trask Industries and Sentinel Service agents would be so foolish.
As if hearing her thoughts, Gemma stood and gestured her hand towards one of the abandoned cars that were along the fence. Following her motion was a thick vine that wrapped itself around the broken vehicle, breaking through the side windows. Soon the car was completely surrounded by the vines, and with a quick motion of making a fist, the vines tightened in a vice grip, the thorns had shot out, piercing the metal and breaking the windshield.
"Holy shit," Andy breathed out a sigh of admiration. Gemma had not only made a protective hedge, but she could also weaponize the thorns.
She turned to smirk at him, pretty proud at how impressed everyone in the courtyard was.
Before she could say anything, she let out a big yawn and all the events from last night and more or less using her powers nonstop had taken their toll on her after such a feat.
"Gem? Are you ok?" Andy asked when she had taken a sudden turn, her eyes struggling to stay open.
"I'm fine," she slurred out, and then started to slowly kneel down to the ground and arm crawled her body to a laying position. "I'm just going to take a little nap."
And that was the last thing she said before she closed her eyes, her whole body went completely slack.
Andy, John, and Polaris rushed to her.
"Mom!" Andy called out to Caitlin who was already on her way to help.
Even with Caitlin prodding her and turning her to her side in case she had to vomit, Gem did not make any movement or protest.
As a nurse with no equipment on her, the only thing she knew how to do was a quick assessment. She checked that Gem was breathing and placed two fingers on Gem's common carotid artery, counting under her breath and confirmed her pulse was normal.
John meanwhile had placed a gentle hand on Gem's shoulder and focused his keen senses.
"Her breathing and heartrate are normal," Caitlin told the group and mainly her son who looked worried sick.
"Yeah, and I don't sense anything else off. She's just sleeping," John agreed. "I think she just overdid it with her powers."
"I don't think she's had any sleep since she got back, either," Polaris added as she thought about all that Gem had done since the Baton Rouge job. "After she cleaned out the top floor, she started growing potatoes and beans, she refilled the water tanks, and then showed Sage all the features of the new chairs."
She and John looked at each other and felt a bit guilty, they had let her run wild with her powers because they had been so helpful.
In addition to asking her to not do side missions, they were going to set some boundaries on what she did around the compound. She didn't need to run herself to exhaustion trying to help them out.
They understood each other perfectly and John scooped Gem up bridal style to carry her inside, she had moved to make herself comfortable and laid her head against his chest.
Andy knew that John's powers include enhanced strength and Gem probably felt like air to carry, while he would have struggled as he was still growing into his body and was just in general kind of skinny, it didn't mean that he liked seeing his girlfriend being carried by an almost 6', full grown man that may or may not have two beautiful women already fighting over him.
He followed him into the bank and before they went towards Gem's room,
"Her room is closed off," he reminded them, and he doubted the vines would instinctively know to open for a sleeping Gem. "She can sleep on my cot," and he ignored the frown that marred his mother's face.
"I don't think…" she was about to object and say it wasn't appropriate, but Andy was quick to argue,
"Are you really going to make her sleep on the floor or on the couch in the middle of the bank with people walking past it all the time?" which were the only other options at the moment, unless John offered his bed in the leadership wing.
Which Andy definitely did not like that idea, and if it was inappropriate for her to sleep on his cot then it was definitely inappropriate for her to sleep in John's bed.
When he put it like that, Caitlin could admit did seem like a rude thing to do to someone who had just made the compound safer and had grown a lot of food. Still, that didn't mean she wanted a 15-year-old girl to sleep in the bed of her 15-year-old son.
"Oh, my God, guys…mom she can sleep on my cot," Lauren offered to keep the peace.
John looked to Caitlin for her permission to drop Gemma off where the Struckers were sleeping, otherwise he was about to offer a bed in the leadership wing. He would have offered his own, but Caitlin pointed out it might be weird for Andy to offer his bed, then it'd definitely be weird for a man in his twenties to offer a bed to a teenage girl he wasn't related to.
He didn't know why people had to make things weird, but he wasn't going to get in the middle of it.
"That's fine, thank you Lauren," she really did appreciate her daughter's offer. From Andy's frustrated look, the fact that he had gone off with Gemma the first chance he got, and from Reed's report that her son and Gemma had been holding hands and even kissed on the mission, they would definitely need to speak with him about appropriate behavior and expectations they had with him and the opposite sex.
Andy rolled his eyes but was glad that at least Gemma would be somewhere comfortable.
John laid Gemma down gently and placed a blanket over her, she was still dead to the world and looked rather peaceful.
Reed had been asleep on the double wide cot he shared with his wife.
"What's…" he was about to ask what was going on, but Caitlin had placed a finger over her lips to shush him and whispered to him that Gemma had overdone it with her powers growing a protective hedge around the compound. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, but glad that there was another layer of protection. He didn't really know why Gemma was in their area, but his wife seemed to accept it, so he just turned over and went back to get much needed sleep.
Andy then plopped down on his own bed right next to Gem and had planned to keep tight until she woke up.
"Are you just going to sit in bed the rest of the day?" Caitlin didn't think that was a good use of his time. Reed had to drive all night and needed the rest, she knew that Lauren and Andy had slept during the drive.
Andy breathed deeply, trying to reign in his frustration because he did not need to have a fight with his mom while Gem and his dad were trying to sleep. He reached over to the pile of textbooks his mom had not so subtly kept near his bed, hoping he would join her tutoring.
"I'll read up on biology," he waved the textbook in front of her and made a show of opening it as he got himself comfortable.
Caitlin struggled to admonish him for his clear attitude, but at least he was reading something, and she didn't want him to decide not to do that out of spite.
"That's good," she would play his game, "There are some end of chapter questions you can do, to make sure you really understood the material."
"Awesome," he really didn't want to do all that, but if it'd get his mom off his back then he could read a few chapters and answer a few questions.
Lauren escaped the standoff between her brother and her mother, she went to make herself useful and hoped that Wes was around to be useful with her.
She went to the supply area and saw they had more cases of water and small toiletries. There were also MREs that they would shelve for the time being. She had orders from Polaris to try to make use of whatever Gem had grown first since that could go bad, while the packaged foods could last for literal years.
There were baskets of peaches and tomatoes, the refugees were helping themselves to those. The beans, potatoes, and root vegetables would supplement the 100lb bags of rice they recently procured to bulk up meals. She off handedly remembered Gem telling them that rice was too difficult to grow and collect as it required a lot of water and land. Buying that staple in bulk was still worth it, and it could last for years as well.
Seeing so much food and then the now massive hedge, Lauren wasn't surprised that Gem had overexerted herself. She struggled to raise a shield and keep it; she couldn't imagine doing something on Gem's level.
But maybe one day with practice, I could create a big enough shield to cover the bank. I could protect us too.
Lauren rather liked that idea, using her powers to protect the mutants seeking refuge with them.
She understood her brother's frustration, she wanted to do more than move boxes of stuff from one end of the bank to another. But unlike her brother, she understood that keeping the day-to-day tasks moving smoothly was also important to keeping the Underground functioning. Helping mutants was more than just defending the compound. It was feeding people, clothing people, making sure they had ways to get clean.
She also wasn't as bullheaded as he was and knew they needed to keep on their parents' good side. It was easier to convince them of things if she just did the simple stuff they asked for first, instead of arguing over every little thing.
At least some of the newer mutants that had come were more willing to be helpful.
Wes, Skyler, and Naya were also with supplies and helping unpack and organize.
Skyler was happily eating a peach as he took inventory, Naya was moving toiletries into their respective bins, and Wes folding new donated clothes.
"Hey guys, what else do we need to do today?" Lauren joined the group with a smile.
"We're actually just kind of fucking around," Skyler admitted as he put the clipboard and pen down. "We really want to talk about your mission with Gemma."
Wes kind of looked apologetic and Naya was just as excited to gossip.
"What do you want to know?" she looked around and no one seemed to notice that they weren't doing anything but talking.
"Um, everything," Skyler told her as if it were obvious. "You went on a real mission. And is it true she has like five powers? I knew she could grow stuff, but she can do fire and all that? And she can teleport?"
Lauren forgot that not everyone was around when Gemma had shown them her powers, so Skyler had heard some stuff through gossip.
"Yeah, it's crazy. I didn't know mutants could have so many," Naya sighed, impressed and a little jealous because she only had the one and she could barely maintain holding water up for more than a couple of minutes or moving it a few feet. She was happy when Gem had said she appreciated her help with watering the roses.
"And how is she so good at using them? I've never seen a mutant just wave their hands and their powers work. Not even the adults," Wes had been around several mutant communities, mostly while homeless, and he knew so many that would kill to be able to keep warm with their own fires or grow their own food. Even his illusions strained him after a few minutes, and besides growing ten foot hedge that was about a mile around the bank and its back building, Gem made having powers look easy.
Lauren struggled with whether she should tell them what Gemma had told her, the other girl had said it so casually, but that didn't mean she would like it if she gossiped.
But Lauren missed clandestine conversations like this with her high school friends.
"OK, don't tell anyone else, alright?" she told them, and they all eagerly agreed and leaned in to hear the secret, it was an easy promise since there weren't many other teenage mutants there that they would talk to. It was almost a high to Lauren to have information other people so clearly desperately wanted. "She told me that she had lived in the Appalachian Mountains for like, months on her own. With no one around and having to survive, she got a lot of practice in."
"Practice?" Wes had a hard time conceptualizing their powers like that. It was either use his powers to survive or not use them at all.
"Yeah, like if you're on your own with all these hours with to do nothing but try to survive and no Sentinel Services around to stop you, I think we'd all be pretty good with our powers."
Skyler and Naya nodded their heads in agreement. Both had been living in tent cities or under bridges with other runaway mutants for a while, but they were always scared to use their powers unless they were desperate.
"Maybe we should go to the Appalachian Mountains for a few weeks…see what we could do?" Naya suggested, she thought if they were next to a water source then she could really see the extent of her powers. The bank was surrounded by forest, but they were still close enough to the city that they couldn't risk too many of them unleashing their powers.
"No," Skyler said definitively which caused them all to look at him, "Like, Gemma might be the boss ass mutant who could survive the Appalachian Mountains, but there's no way in hell I would ever choose to do that. Those Mountains are legit haunted and filled with monsters. I camped there once and never fuckin' ever again. And if the ghosts and monsters don't get us, the hillbillies and cavern system will."
Naya and Lauren both looked skeptical.
"I'm telling you, we heard all kinds of crazy shit at night, weird whistles and howling. And I looked it up after camping, like 2,000 people a year disappear off the trail. Never to be seen again. And at least three different hillbilly locales told us to not venture off the trail and warned us about all the cryptids. The Appalachians are straight up dangerous."
Instead of mutant teens pretending to help around the compound, it felt more like they were telling ghost stories or the part of the horror movie where the one nerd tries to warn every one of the dangers.
"I'm sure Gem will protect you if we do go training in the mountains. Part of Appalachia does run through Georgia," Wes teased Skyler for being so spooked.
"I bet Gem's not even a mutant," they weren't sure if Skyler was joking, "She could be an Appalachian witch. That's really how she survived the mountains."
"Or maybe her real power is to steal mutant powers," Naya played along, "that's why she has so many."
That was a horrifying thought that made the group pause and sent a shiver down their backs.
"Holy shit, what if that is her real power?" Wes knew it probably wasn't, but there was no real rhyme or reason to mutant abilities and his imagination was starting to run wild. Mutant abilities could literally be anything and physics as they knew it didn't matter. "I've never met a mutant with more than one ability before, have you guys?"
He was mainly addressing Skyler and Naya because he knew from their talks that Lauren had been hiding her abilities for about a year while staying with her family in the suburbs. He doubted she had met any other mutants before they had to run away.
They both shook their heads,
"Well, John is super strong and has super hearing and whatever," Lauren pointed out. "That's more than one power."
"Is it? Or is his real power a super body and all those pieces together give him multiple abilities? Ears are part of his body, so super hearing. His muscles are part of his body, so super strength. His eyes are part of his body, super seeing." Wes pointed out.
"That's deep, man," Skyler nodded as if they were having some deep philosophical discussion.
"She's not a witch," Lauren insisted and rolled her eyes. "And she's dating my brother," she ignored Skyler who looked a little put out at that new fact, "he has a crazy powerful ability. If she's stealing powers, she would have taken his already. He follows her like a lovesick puppy all the time, she's had plenty of chances."
"Well, I'm going to be nice to her no matter what," Naya asserted. "She already has a water power, so she's not taking mine. You three better watch out," she joked.
"I think I'll be safe," Skyler was only half joking and would still be on guard since power stealing could very well be an actual ability, "I can repel and pull objects, it's not very impressive."
"If I could steal powers, I'd take John's. Especially the bullet proof part, but definitely also super strength" Wes was happy with his abilities, but he'd be lying if there weren't other more physically impressive abilities he would rather have.
"I'd steal Gemma's teleportation, go anywhere in the blink of an eye? I'd be on a French beach or in the Mediterranean," Lauren would love to escape and be on some beautiful, warm beach. She didn't really care about the other abilities, but they would be cool too if they were a package deal.
"I'd find Wolverine," Skyler gave his opinion, "Healing and badass hand knives? Snikt, Snikt," he put up his fists and mimicked the motion of blades coming from his fists and fighting.
"Hand knives, they aren't hand knives," Lauren pointed out, scoffing at the ridiculous description.
"What do you call them, then?" he challenged, as he thought hand knives was a perfectly accurate and appropriate description.
"They're…" she kind of sputtered because her brain decided not to work. It still took a minute and in that minute she had to endure Skyler's smirk. "Retractable claws," she finally remembered what the official biography of the mutant had written about him and gave her own triumphant smirk.
Skyler sulked and rolled his eyes when the others agreed Lauren's description was much better.
The group started to do some real work, all the while joking around and speaking about what powers they would like to have.
It was odd and crazy, but it was her reality now. She found she rather liked just hanging around with mutants her own age, teens who weren't her angry brother or her parents who were constantly worried about her safety and the use of her powers.
They pressed again on to Lauren what happened during the mission and she told them she didn't really have a part, but they were duly impressed with how Andy had felled the enforced concrete wall. That then devolved into gossiping about how the two most powerful teens in the compound were dating, which in turn went over on who else was dating.
It really felt like a conversation she'd have had in high school, and that was a comforting thought.
A few hours later, Marcos had gotten up from his nap as he was used to working on little sleep. He did a round through the bank to see what was being done and who was currently there. He was happy to see the quad of teens making themselves useful. He thought it a bit odd that Gemma was sleeping in the Strucker office that they had claimed, Andy sitting guard a bed over and Reed also asleep.
He then made his way to the kitchen and was happy to see baskets of food, obviously made by Gem. His stomach grumbled at the sight of potatoes, hoping that maybe they had real milk and butter on hand to make real mashed potatoes. It was one of his favorite comfort foods, and some of the MREs had mashed potatoes, but dried potato flakes just weren't the same.
I bet she could also grow all sorts of peppers, herbs, and tomatillos, I would kill for some salsa verde or aji.
His mouth started to water at all the possibilities if they gave Gemma the right seeds.
"Hey, you," Lorna greeted her boyfriend and pulled him in for a kiss. "Come outside, see what Gem did," she didn't give him a chance to respond as she pulled him by his hand.
On their way out, John had seen them and joined them, as did Dreamer.
"Holy shit," Marcos could see Gem's work as they headed towards the doorway as it was hard to miss ten-foot-tall rose hedges that were not there when he went down to nap.
He didn't get the full extent of how massive the hedge was until he had come to it. He was not a short man, but the greenery towered over him. He went over to a blooming rose, fragrant and velvety soft as he felt the petals between his fingers to see if they were real.
The thorns were almost as long as his arm, but he couldn't help but see if those were real as well. Just as Sleeping Beauty was entranced by the spindle, Marcos had pricked his finger when he barely touched the thorn.
A pearl of sunlight had gathered on his fingertip, proof that the thorns could make him bleed.
They could make any Sentinel Service agent bleed as well,
He thought with a grim satisfaction.
"They'd have a hard time getting through this," Marcos couldn't help but be impressed, and slightly grateful. He had been angry earlier, but he would always be thankful for anything that helped protect Lorna and the baby.
"Yeah, Gem can also make the vines crush a car," John pointed to the old junker that had been abandoned at the bank since they had first set up there.
The car had just been collecting dust and dirt for the past several years, it wasn't worth moving it, but now it was a scrunched-up piece of metal with its windows blown out.
"Jesus," Marcos was now glad he had taken a nap instead of tearing into Gem as soon as he got back. She was not a mutant he wanted to mess with, and he felt a little better about her chances against Sentinel Services.
Better, but not 100% confidence in, especially not with a mutant like Pulse as their prisoner.
"I want a meeting in our room," he told Polaris and John. "Get all the leadership, I want to debrief everyone and we need to have a serious discussion on Gem's little side project."
They agreed and the fact Marcos wanted it in the leadership wing rather than their usual spot, meant that he really didn't want anyone else to hear.
One of the reasons they didn't normally have meetings in the leadership wing of the bank, was because all the offices claimed as bedrooms were pretty small. Marcos and Lorna had the biggest one since they shared, but it was still a tight fit to get all six of them in there.
Marcos told them how their trip down and overnight was uneventful and went smoothly. None of the teen mutants had misused their powers or used them out in the open. Andy had quickly made the hole they needed, and they were able to get the files and hard drives back quickly and safely.
"She had good ideas when it came to breaking in, I think if we do ever want her on another mission, maybe she'd have some good insight on how to get it done. I didn't think of getting a screwdriver for the towers or that I might set off the fire alarm before we were even in. Her powers are incredibly convenient and useful," he wanted them to know that he didn't forget or wasn't considering the good Gem had done for the mission and the Mutant Underground in general.
"Her food has been immeasurably helpful for the vast number of mutants that have come by. I think this hedge could give us a real fighting chance if the bank was ever attacked…but no one's powers are so useful that we can just let them do whatever they want. She completely disobeyed a direct order to come straight back to HQ, and she risked her safety and that of this compound for office supplies. We don't know the full extent of Sentinel Services' resources in Baton Rouge. We don't know Trask tech and how far it has come. For all we knew, Sentinel Services had some silent alarm that pinged as soon as soon as we stepped into that garage, and they were on their way. What if there's some other mutant like Pulse? What if they had captured her? She has the ability to just drop in anywhere she's been before. What defense do we have against that kind of attack?"
Polaris, Sage, and Shatter had all been ready to defend Gemma. They all were enjoying the fruit of her powers, but Marcos made a stark and sobering point.
Gemma said she hadn't tried teleporting with people yet, but they knew for sure that Trask Industries would experiment with that ability first and foremost. Clarice's abilities had a limited range, and her portals were only so big. Gemma, on the other hand, could potentially drop an entire regiment of Sentinel Service agents right into the heart of the bank. Or she could jump with Pulse and every mutant in the bank would be powerless as agents surrounded the building.
"Look, I get that she's young and it was her first mission, just days after joining us. She's not trained, and we honestly didn't even prepare her, we were too busy with other things. I'll admit, that's my fault," Marcos had a clear enough head and was fair enough to recognize as the leader, any flub of anyone under his command was his failure. "We need to stress to her the importance of following command while on a mission, something I hope she's not part of for months if not a year or longer. She needs to learn to be a team player. With that in mind, whatever we need to do to get Clarice back, we have to do it. Beg on our knees, I don't care. She's an adult and keeps a cool head. We need that more than Gem's powers."
They all murmured their agreement; Gem was just too green and untrained to be a real asset on missions. This last one happened to do alright, but that was sheer dumb luck. They couldn't count on luck to see them through.
"I also want to talk on us using our powers on each other," Polaris said gravely, since Clarice was brought up. "I'm not judging the motives of why it happened," Dreamer was like family, so she wasn't going to call her directly out, "but it's a slippery slope I do not want to go down. We have a right to succeed or fail a mission. We volunteer for this life. We know the risks, we know it's dangerous and we do it anyway. We know we may not make it out. We know we may get captured. That's our choice. We will not use our powers against one another, even if it's to save someone we love. We have to draw the line here."
"I agree," John said gravely, he didn't want Dreamer to keep arguing the same point. "We all know the risk and we go in knowing those risks. We have to draw a line somewhere, else we'll end up as bad or worse as our enemies. We also have to trust each other while we're on missions, or we've failed before we've even started. If we can't trust each other, then there's no point in being here. We might as well just pack up and move to Mexico."
Dreamer knew she wasn't going to win any argument, and she could see the honor in Polaris and John's words. They didn't want to cross a line, not even for their lives. She had to swallow the hard pill that John volunteered to put his life in danger, Clarice did not volunteer to have her mind messed with in order to force her powers to work.
"I'll come along whenever you go out to try to find her," she told John. "If anyone has to be on their knees to beg forgiveness, it should be me."
She appreciated Polaris' attempt at being neutral and not name anyone to specify using mind altering powers, but they all knew by now what she had done. She needed to face the music.
The fact she finally seemed to understand why it was wrong to use her powers on Clarice, had lifted a weight off of John's heart. Dreamer as a good person, he reached out his hand to squeeze hers.
Perhaps she's right, why deny ourselves love and comfort when we could be captured or die at any moment?
John would have a private conversation with Dreamer later. He didn't want to go on another mission without her knowing how he felt.
"We'll both be on our knees," he promised her, he knew he was almost just as guilty because he kept the truth from Blink. "Since we're talking about Gem," he figured he might as well get an awkward topic out of the way. "Andy has his parents to talk to him about sex, should one of us speak to Gem?"
He said "us" but in his heart he was really referring to the women in the group. He just wasn't dumb enough to automatically foist it off on them.
There was a collective grimace at the horrifying thought of trying to talk to a teenager about sex.
"Not it," Polaris immediately touched her nose, it was not a responsibility she wanted.
As an automatic reaction, each had followed suit except for John who sighed in frustration and disappointment.
"Come on, someone has to talk to her, right?"
He didn't want to be the ass to point out they didn't want to have two unplanned pregnancies at the compound, but maybe he had to.
Thankfully, Polaris was well aware of how inconvenient her pregnancy was, even if she already loved her baby more than anything.
"Does that someone really have to be one of us, though?" Marcos groused before Lorna could volunteer.
"Who else is it going to be?"
"Don't kids these days know everything anyway?" he evaded the question. "With the internet?" he made a vague waving motion to the nebulous entity known as The Internet.
"I know you haven't been on the internet in years, Marcos," Sage told him with alarm, which was true since the compound's computers were strictly used to monitor police scanners and government systems. Even his phone was analogue and never connected to the web, "but you do not want her only knowledge of sex to be from the internet. The internet is so vast…and messed up…like really messed up."
Sage had a haunted look John had only seen on vets with PTSD.
"Fine, I'll talk to her," John, he was the leader after all and therefore he had to take responsibility if no one else would.
Despite every woman in the room not volunteering, they had the audacity to give him a skeptical look.
"What? How hard can it really be? I'll give her some condoms, tell her to freely use her powers if Andy gets too handsy for her liking or tell him to go to hell if he tries to get out of using condoms or pressures her, take her to a farm or zoo like my dad did for me and let her watch the animals do what they do. She'll get the idea."
"Is that seriously how you learned about sex?" Dreamer was aghast and surprised because he was an attentive lover when they've had sex.
"Yeah, I mean, I learned things on the way…that's how it's supposed to be, right? You just figure stuff out."
"Can do what my dad did," Marcos volunteered, "Take her to a brothel. They have boy whores these days, right?"
All the women and Shatter kind of looked at each other in horror as they found out just how messed up John and Marcos' childhood were.
"What? Who better than a professional to teach her about sex…she doesn't have to have sex with them…just, you know…ask questions and get some tips."
"OK, you two are forbidden from speaking to her about sex and maybe ever…I'll talk to her," Dreamer would not allow these idiots to pass on their trauma. Gemma definitely deserved better than to be thrown a box of condoms and be told to figure it out. If the teen hadn't had sex already, then she was at the age that she would definitely start at least being curious about it and wanting to experiment.
Unless she's asexual which would be awesome.
There were so many ways to be, she wouldn't presume.
John and Marcos were glad they didn't have to do it, but they were a little offended that it was clear the rest of them thought they'd do a bad job.