* I do not own the X-men or their world.
Please review! Please oh please oh please?
New York
"Why haven't you found her yet?" Enormous boy with black hair and blue eyes roared, smashing his fists into the meeting table and causing it to collapse.
"Peter, would you get a hold of yourself?" Scott Summers said as Jean used her powers to set the table back into place.
"Three months you've been looking, but still no sign of her! You aren't doing your jobs! A mutant girl is missing and you X-men just sit around twiddling your thumbs!" Peter accused.
"We are looking, we are doing the best we can." Storm rose and tried to get Peter to sit down, but he shook her off. "Losing your temper won't solve anything."
"I still can't track down Sabretooth!" Wolverine snarled. "I don't know how or why
he's behind this, but I smelled him that first night she disappeared. The key to finding her is him, but no one seen him for ages."
"There aren't even his murders on the news any more." Dani Moonstar contributed sadly.
"And the Brotherhood ain't gonna talk, yah, we know cher." Gambit seemed aged and tired.
"Instead of saying why you can't find her, why don't you actually try!" Peter yelled, kicking a chair and making it shatter.
"PETER, THAT IS ENOUGH!" Jean, usually so calm, yelled rushing up to the boy. "We all feel terribly about not being able to find Shadow. Did you really think we wouldn't? We've all been doing our part to try to find her, while keeping the other students calm, and it still hasn't been enough! You're yelling isn't helping anything. We asked you to this meeting to contribute, not to destroy everything. Now, go out into the hall to cool off for a bit, once you're ready and calm, you may come back inside."
Jean's tone softened as she placed a gentle hand on the trembling boy's massive shoulder. "I know you care about Shadow, but the best thing you can for her is to remain calm. Nightcrawler? Why don't you take a walk with Peter, help him become calm."
Nightcrawler teleported beside Peter. "I vill do just that fräulein. Come on friend, let us go."
Once Nightcrawler had steered Peter out of the room, everyone let lose a deep sigh.
"You shouldn't have invited him to the meeting in the first place, Jean." Scott scolded.
"What was I supposed to do? We've all seen how Peter has acted since Shadow was taken. He hardly leaves his room or hangs out with his friends, he doesn't pay attention during class, just mopes around the place. He gets mad easily and actual has a temper! Peter was the one student in the school that we didn't have to worry about using his powers to harm others, but now he is getting in fights! With his strength, we can't afford for him to fight the other students. I thought showing him that we're working on it would help." Jean defended.
"The boy's got it bad for the petite fille." Gambit commented.
Logan rounded on the younger man. "What were you thinking that night, Gumbo? Taking out those kids to bar! And then, you can't even keep an eye on them? Pyro exposed himself as a mutant, Paige was nearly taken home by some forty year old pervert, and would have been if her brother didn't cannonball tackle the guy through the bar's roof! All were so hammered that they couldn't control their powers and we had to come get 'em and erase the others minds! AND SHADOW GOT KIDNAPPED WHILE YOU WERE TRYING TO WOO A TENNAGE GIRL! I swear, if you didn't have Chuck's protection, I'd gut yah right here!"
"WOLVERINE, IF YOU CAN'T CALM YOURSELF I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU DO THE SAME THING AS PETER!" Jean roared. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she continued. "We all know Gambit screwed up, big time. He never should have taken the kids out or put the idea in their heads to go to a club. But he didn't know this would happen and we just have to accept what has happened and fix it."
"So what are we supposed to do? There are no leads and all previous attempts to find her have failed. Do any of us actually have something to offer at this meeting?" Hank asked the staff, adjusting his glasses.
"I hate to say this but, knowing Sabretooth's past record, how are we supposed to know he hasn't just raped and murdered the poor girl already? What if we're searching for a corpse?" Scott suggested, everyone turned to look at the leader, appalled.
"Because Summer's, this wasn't a stray hit with him." Wolverine growled. "He hunted her down and had other men help bring her down. I smelled them, remember? And we suspect it was he who killed her family. No, she was a planned target, he'll keep her alive. But I want to know why, why her."
"When me and Logan went up to her Canadian town to look for her, locals told us that a unit of American men lead by a large man was hanging around a few days before the Willow's family's murder. The description they gave us of the large man matched Sabretooth's. Logan is right, he planned this for awhile." Storm said.
"But how," Dani asked. "Shadow is extremely powerful. How could block her powers enough to take her? "
"So we all feel'n that the petite is live'n? Good, next order of business. How do we get her back?" Remy leaned forward on the table, looking at the other X-men.
I was awoken from the vivid dream by a loud knocking at my door. I rubbed my eyes and called groggily, "What?"
A young unfamiliar male voice answered. "A message for the Lioness, may I come in?"
"No." I called back. It was bad enough that ol'Striker boy wanted to get in my pants without letting strange men into my room.
"Uh, alright then." The voice sounded a little disappointed. "Major Creed sent me to remind you that you are expected in his study in fifteen minutes. He also sent a gift for you. He strongly suggests you use his gift tonight."
I groaned and flopped back onto my pillows. "Fine, just leave it out there."
After not hearing departing footsteps, I called. "You can leave now."
"Oh, uh, right."
Once I was sure he was gone using my enhanced senses (I could no longer hear his footsteps echoing in the hall nor smell his scent of sweat, blood, and turnips), I got off my bed and opened the door. I found a medium sized package wrapped in brown paper and groaned. I don't want any more of Creed's stupid presents! I thought angrily, throwing the package into my room and slamming the door. Does he really think I'm stupid enough to be bought by presents? He's just hurting himself (not that I care) by trying, I won't fall for this stupid game so he gets upset.
But when the soldier said "strongly suggests", it means he ordered me to use whatever it was tonight. Rubbing the bruises along my throat that he gave me today, I already knew what happens when I disobey him.
I went over to the discarded gift and placed it on my bed. I wrinkled my nose at its scent, too "Creed" for my taste. It was the scent I learned to hate. Liquor, blood, sweat, forest and something that made me think of dominance. His scent was always in my room because he visited it so often, but it didn't make me used to the scent. Every time I smelt it, I wanted to run away and hide, like a child.
Opening the package, I found a black dress, black strappy shoes, and earrings with diamonds dangling from silver chains. Holding up the dress against me and looking in the mirror, I scowled. It looked to be very form fitting and had a halter like top, so that it revealed almost my whole back. Very short too, I thought, this dress will defiantly show a lot of leg.
I know why he wanted me to be all dressed up, to show off to his friends his "kit". I'm defiantly not beautiful, but maybe a little black dress and diamonds would help. Disgusting. It would probably be easier for him to cut off my head and place it on a plaque and up in his study's walls, like his other trophies than to go to all this bother. I'd wouldn't act so resentful then.
I looked over at the blood and sweat stained training jumpsuit I wore during my morning obstacle courses. Did I dare to wear that to greet his friends?
"No," I sighed audibly. As much as I wanted to rebel, there was a part of me that feared this man too much to anger him. I've seen him kill people with ease, not even having a second thought. Me being his kit may have kept me alive for this long, but I wasn't sure how much longer this would last.
I showered (not because I wanted to make a good impression, but because I was still sticky from the blood and sweat from my last training session) and dressed in the gift. I mournfully put in the earrings, feeling like a complete loser. I made myself feel a little better by not wearing the heals he gave me. It was a defiant enough to make me feel better, and if he got made I could say they didn't fit. I considered spiking up my hair to look more punkish, but then I remembered how much it had grown. Over the three months and with the help of the healing ability, my pixie short hair cut grown shoulder length. I now had to pull it back during training. Sabretooth would not let me cut it, apparently he like his girl to have longer hair.
Making me want to cut it even more.
Settling on pulling it back into a ponytail, I left my room. I muttered darkly as I tried to pull up my dress a little from the behind. It showed all the way down to my tailbone! For not wanting men to flirt with me, Creed sure picked a revealing dress.
Creed's study and other connecting rooms were way above mine. I knew exactly where it was from all the times he made me stay with him there. Usually he would try to get me to watch tv with him (at these times I brought a book) or tried to engage me in conversation as he drank (at these times, I also had a book). Eventually he would get fed up of my ignoring him and let me escape back to my room.
I used my enhanced senses to make sure I would not run into anyone. I had no plans on being caught dressed up like this, especially by a certain creepy general.
I made it to Creed's room with no trouble. I took a deep breath, composing myself, then gently knocked on his door.
A small man with green tinged skin and eyes like Greg's opened the door a smidgen, before opening the door fully and exclaiming. "Whoa!"
I was a little taken back, who was this man? I thought I was sure this was Creed's room, but I might have made a mistake. Before I could do anything, the toad man wrapped a clammy hand around my wrist and pulled my inside the room. "Come join the party! Hey Sabretooth, did you hire some up class hooker for this get together?"
I blushed, my anger rising.
On one of the coucher was a stretched out Creed, a bottle of beer in his hand.
"No yah dumb ass, that's my daughter!" Creed snarled, throwing his beer at the other man. The toad man jumped out of the way of the bottle, and hung onto the ceiling, observing me with his creepy eyes.
"Well, either way, she's hot! Ow!" Another empty bottle flew at the toadman, this time hitting him square in the head and making him fall down to the floor with a thump.
"Lioness, I want yah ta meet some of my old acquaintances, The Brotherhood of Mutants." Creed waved a lazy hand at the others around the room an introduced them.
The toad man was called, well, Toad. Currently he was hanging upside down in the corner on the ceiling, holding his hurt head.
A very large man taking up the other couch in the study was Fred Dukes, or Blob. He had super strength. The couched sagged greatly under his weight. He gave me a friendly wave when introduced.
A pale man with silver white hair was laying coolly in Creed's armchair, his legs dangling careless over the arm. He had silver blue eyes and was tall. Quicksilver, Creed called him, but was also known as Pietro. In a flash he was by my side shaking my hand, then back to his original position in no time. Superspeed, I thought absently to myself as I was introduced to the next person.
A boy not much older than me turned from the study's vast bookshelf (the books had belonged to the previous owner of the study, Creed just hadn't thrown them out yet). He had dark brown hair, eyes that reminded me of basalt, and was about six feet tall and thin. He smirked and interrupted Creed before he could finish saying his name.
"Avalanche." He supplied, offering his hand. Trying to be polite, I accepted it, but got quite surprised when instead of shaking it Avalanche took my hand up to his lips and kissed it. I blushed harder. "But pretty girls like you can call me Lance, Lance Alvers."
Creed gave a low growl, either because he did not like being interrupted by the punk or because he was getting fresh with his daughter. Probably both.
"I like your earrings, they real emphasize your stunning eyes, Lioness." Lance complimented, brushing the dangly earrings and "accidently" touching my neck.
Creed looked about ready to kill the boy. Quicksilver seeing the feral man's rage building, he quickly (and I mean quickly) pulled the boy away from me and dropped him off across the room from me. Pietro gave his young companion a swift slap up side the head before speeding back to the arm chair.
Good! I thought feverishly, I don't want some thug flirting with me! Especially when I had a dream about Peter!
Thinking back to my dream, I almost moaned audibly. It was so good to see Peter, even if he was showing a side of him I never saw before. It saddened me to hear that he was affected so badly by my kidnapping. I never wanted him to feel like that, especially because of me. It was a little scary to think that I could hurt him that badly, it was like a power I didn't know I possessed. Despite the strange feeling I got from thinking about Peter, I also felt a little hope that the X-men were still looking for me.
My thoughts were yanked back as Creed introduced me to the last man in the room. I knew who he was, of course. I knew who they all were. The Brotherhood of Mutants were the infamous group of mutant terrorists that fought for mutant superiority over humans. I've seen wanted posters of them and heard about how the X-men fought them regularly. I really wasn't surprised to hear Sabretooth was once amongst their ranks. I didn't know too much about the group because I had lived in Canada, but once I reached the States, I quickly learned about places they struck that weren't too mutant friendly because of them.
The last man who was staring out the window absently was the leader of the mutants.
X-men are to Brotherhood as Charles Xavier is to-
"Magneto." I whispered, dumbfounded. If it wasn't strange enough to see the other wanted mutants, this was the icing on the cake to see Erik Lehnsherr standing before me. He had on his famous red helmet that could prevent telepaths from entering his mind. I don't care how advanced that helmet is, I thought, its still goofy looking.
The villain turned and smiled, offering his hand. "Hello little one. It is a great honor to finally meet my old friend's daughter."
This is so weird, who would think super villains had such manners? I thought, accepting his hand. I am shaking the hand of the most wanted mutant in the whole world…this is so weird.
"How did you get in here?" I blurted out. "I mean, this is a secret base, full of security."
If they can get in, can I get out.
"A good question." Magneto looked up to Creed who had come up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder (I tried not to shudder). "Why is it Victor that you have asked us here tonight?"
Creed led/forced me back to his couch and made me sit beside him. He took another sip of beer before answering.
"Well, yer see, my new employers been looking fer you guys." He said calmly. Everyone in the room tensed, preparing themselves for men with guns to come crashing in. But none came.
"Oh, they have, have they?" Magneto said calmly. "Along with everyone else in the country. So are we too presume you have, what's the phrase, sold us out?"
The room started to shake violently, causing books to fall off the shelves and for Toad to jump into Blob's arms. I looked around and saw the earthquake was being caused by Avalanche. His eyes looked to be pure stone and all the ripples were coming from him.
"Calm yerself, I'm not turning yah in." Creed called over the sounds of falling objects. With my enhanced hearing, I could hear men shouting from above and below us about an earthquake. "I have a proposition fer yah."
The earthquake continued until Magneto called to Lance.
"That is enough, Avalanche." He said sternly. The rock eyes looked over to Magneto, who gave them a look. Slowly, the shaking subsided and his eyes turned normal again.
Oh sure, they let mutant terrorists keep their powers, but not me, I grumbled to myself.
"Like I was saying, my employers want yah all to work with em." Creed continued.
Seeing that Creed was occupied by business, I look advantage of the moment and edged away from him. I didn't dare leave the couch completely, but I got far enough that I felt better.
"They'll let yah off of all charges, if yah assist with a certain mission fer em. No more being hunted down, and y'll actually get paid." Creed looked each mutant in the eye, letting his words sink in.
"And what will we actually do, Creed? If you haven't remembered, we have a cause to work for." Quicksilver asked. "Mutants are still being treated like dirt well these homo sapiens rule. What do you want us to do? Forget everything we stand for and go to work for these animals?"
Creed growled lowly at the other man, his cat like eyes glowing in the dim lighted room.
"Hey hey hey! Lets not be hasty here!" Toad jumped out of Blob's arms landing close to Magneto. "What's so bad about not having the cops on our trials and getting some decent dough?"
Quicksilver was instantly in Toad's face, and slammed him up against the wall.
"What's so bad, you pathetic little toad, is that we'd be working for homo sapiens and throwing away all our noble work!" Pietro snarled.
"Peace Pietro." Magneto said sternly. Quicksilver gave Toad one more thump against the wall before letting him go.
"Maybe you'd actually like to tell them what the purpose of this base is, Victor." A soft mysterious feminine voice said. A cerulean blue skinned woman with feline yellow eyes and orangey red hair had entered the room. Even with my enhanced senses, I didn't hear her. Even stranger, I couldn't smell her. The woman had no scent! I thought, shocked.
Just like the others, I knew perhaps the most famous and deadly member of the Brotherhood, Mystique. A shape shifter with unnatural flexibility, and a master of almost all fighting arts and weapons.
"Raven." Creed greeted. It was hard to tell whether it was a sneer or smile that played on his face. "I thought yah weren't coming."
"Do not talk to me, traitor. And don't you dare use that name." Mystique hissed, sliding in beside Magneto.
"What is it my dear?" Magneto asked the woman.
"This base is for capturing mutants and experimenting on them!" She snarled in Creed's direction. "Creed hunts our own kind and hands them off to these barbarians!"
This raised an uproar amongst the others in the room. A chill went down my back at the thought of experimenting and capturing people just because they have an active X gene; but that's just the way of our world now a days. What was even more disturbing is knowing that Sabretooth would help this cause. But I knew all this before. I knew they were experimenting with my DNA to try to make weapons and to control mutants. I knew they were training me to do the same as Creed.
It scared the hell out of me.
"Just calm yerselves! I can explain!" Creed roared, getting to his feet and shoving the couch away.
"Explain why you would betray your own kind!" Quicksilver yelled back.
In a flash Quicksilver was upon Creed. He threw instant punches as the large man and moved before Creed could stop the assault or hit him back. The others soon got the idea
and started to attack Creed.
Lance gave me a small apologetic smile "Sorry about having to kill your dad." Than began his earthquakes again.
"Enough!" Creed roared as Mystique high kicked his head. Whipping out a small remote looking device, everything stopped. Toad, who was attempting to leap onto Creed's head, suddenly fell with a painful thud. The small mental objects that were flying towards Creed's heart stopped, floating in midair.
They all just stopped, I thought astounded.
"Now that I've got yer attention, yah can listen." Creed growled. "Yes, my employers capture and experiment on mutants. Just nobodies, who cares bout em? Yer all fighting a lost battle, I'm just smart enough to pick a winning side."
"What did you do to them?" I asked, gently prodding Lance's arm.
"Just a little gadget Stryker gave me before asking me to enlist the Brotherhood's help. They can't use their powers, can't even move. But they can listen." Creed walked around Magneto, a predator circling its helpless prey. "Stryker wants Charles Xavier's School fer Gifted children. They've been working on some project involving mutant DNA, don't know much bout it other than that. But they haven't been able to collect the DNA samples fast enough or the right kind. Level 5 mutants er kind of hard ter find, aren't they? But Xavier's, that place is packed full of mutants, they're bound to find what they need."
I felt a small twitch in my mind, signalling that the forces keeping my psychic powers sedated were weakening. It had happened a few times before, but this time it felt more powerful than the others. They weren't strong enough for me to break out of the base, but they could come in use. But how?
"Stryker has a plan. Half of yah guys causes a disturbance far from the school, big enough to bring out all the X-men. Once they're out of the picture, the rest of yah and the other mutants working fer Stryker goes in and gets the students." Creed purred. Creed began to go around and put the same metal bracelets that I had on my wrists onto the Brotherhood. "Stryker has it a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it."
The only two left that didn't have on the bracelets were Lance and Mystique, I had to make my move now! Once those bracelets were on, their powers would be blocked like mine.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and connected my mind to Creed's. I had barely any power. Before I seemed like I could do anything, but this was hard. My nose started to bleed but I didn't have my whole mind merged with Creed's like before when I would use my telepathic powers on someone. Some perks to being weaker, I thought absently, wiping away my blood from my nose.
I stopped what he was doing and put him in somewhat of a coma on his feet, so that I could have time to do what I needed.
Finding, with a lot of difficulty, the memory of seeing Lance and Mystique was erased. Everything to do with them here tonight was taken from Creed's mind.
Taking another breath, I pulled myself out of his mind, but still kept a hold on his mind enough to keep him comatose.
Using my powers, I awoke Lance and Mystique. They both looked around in shock. I started shaking from all the power being used to keep them awake and free.
"We're free? But how? W-what happened to him? He just stopped moving. And your nose, its-" Lance stated.
"Bleeding, yeah, that happens. Listen, I'm not sure how much more time I have to do this, so I'll make it quick. I took away any memories of him seeing you two here tonight. He didn't put the bracelets on you that will block your powers, so you can use them to get away. You have to get away from here and warn Xavier about Stryker's planned attack." I was now shaking to stay conscious. It was taking so much power that I didn't have to do this…
"I'm not leaving them!" Mystique snarled at me, grabbing Magneto's shoulder.
"Its too late for the others. I don't have enough power to remove the bracelets or the memories." I slurred, falling to my knees. Lance hurried over to me to help me stand back up, but I shook my head. I pulled his head close to mine to hear. "You can save them with the help of the X-men. Have them come here to stop the attack and free the mutants."
"And we're to just accept that you're to betray your father?" Mystique asked sceptically.
"I owe nothing to that monster." I hissed, my vision starting to go black.
"What about you? Come with us." Lance asked holding me in his arms.
Crap I am in no mood for this guy!
"I, don't have the power to leave. Get, the X- X-me…" It was getting harder and harder to stay awake. Shit, am I dying? I wondered. "Get the X-men. Go."
The last thing I saw before all went black was Mystique taking the form of a base soldier, grabbing Lance away from me and dragging him out the door. With all the hope left in me, I prayed that the two would put aside their differences with the heroes and bring them here. That the X-men would actually believe them and come. That I would be saved.