First Mutant
By David D. Amaya
Chapter 34
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Capital Children's Museum, I St. Northeast DC 1757 EST Day 21
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Dropping his weapon in a desperate attempt to somehow save the life of the President's son, Agent Nichols dashes under the falling Bike that plummets to the ground. Wolverine leaps from the third floor railing, thinking if he can land first and let the device land on him he might be able to prevent Cyrus Parkman's premature death. Jubilee watches helplessly, her friend in her lucky yellow trenchcoat dropping before her eyes to the ground floor.
She has witnessed victory pull from the jagged jaws of defeat many an adventure with the X-Men, but she as also said her share of final goodbyes. She closes her eyes and prays the two heroes can perform a miracle catch.
Suddenly a brilliant blue flash of light bathes the room. A mass of energy fills the lobby and reaches out to catch Wolverine and the falling Red Bike, making Agent Nichols skid across the floor, having been spared from being crushed by the mass landing on him. Bringing them gently to earth, the pair is brought to rest next to the mutant responsible for their rescue, the hero, familiar to them.
Wolverine's claws make short work of Cyrus' restraints. Agent Nichols looks him over for injuries while Wolverine addresses their rescuer.
"So you're a mutant, eh Bub?"
The Director of the United States Secret Service merely looks at him over his sunglasses. "Of course I am! Why do you think we LET the Boss out of Castle? I was the White House Agent-in-Charge just before I got kicked upstairs by Knight."
"It's all good Chief!" Jubilee called down from the third floor. "The more the merrier-"
She was cut off as a gunshot rang out, striking the Director in the shoulder, knocking him to the floor. The masked thug regained consciousness his Sig Sower now at her temple.
Wolverine instantly races for the staircase, but arrived back on the third floor too late. The gunman had Jubilee on her knees, her hands crossed over her torso and pressed against the railing forcing her to turn her head in Wolverine's direction. The gunman pressed the Sig Sower against her ear, allowing him to use his free hand to remove his mask for a better view.
"Stop right there, I'll blow this mutie bitch's head all over you!"
"WOODS!" Nichols shouted, instantly remembering him from his first day on Castle. "DROOP THE GUN!" he ordered, now holding a dead man's Uzi trained at Special Agent Mark Woods, Cyrus Parkman's original Secret Service bodyguard.
"How about just the bullets!" suddenly he points the weapon down and begins to fire at Cyrus' unconscious body.
Nichols' instincts and training knowing the target, his body reacts without the benefit of independent though. The body leaps, throwing itself as shield much the same way it did for Cyclops. It draped itself on Kilowatt's body absorbing all four projectiles in the center of it's mass.
The special adamantium trauma plate protects the President's son and deflects two of the kill shots, but the other pair found entry into Kordel's body.
Not waiting to see if Nichols or Parkman were dead, Agent Woods returns the smoking barrel to Jubilee's head.
"This little girl means more to you than the President's brat, doesn't she?" he taunts the X-Man. "Let's see you stop this, Mutie!"
All of a sudden, the grip on the weapon loosens. Mark Woods' eyeballs begin to bulge out. His free hand grips his neck, then, dropping his gun, he has both hands around his neck. Squeaking noises escape his throat as invisible hands crush his larynx, he stumbles around until he trips over the railing falling 100 feet to his demise.
Jubilee leaps to embrace Wolverine, his only thought was of the only one, other than himself, who would casually toss aside their morality for the brave, wise-cracking young lady in his arms right now.
Teary eyed, Jubilee looks down to the lobby and sends a message to her rescuer.
Thanks, Mom.
Jean Grey-Summers, stood, haven regained her consciousness in time to find the young hero she and her husband nursed back to health for all those long, trying months, with a gun to her head, the thoughts of the gunman, Kill.
"Ya did the only thing ya could do, Red." Wolverine assured her, hoping that she could believe his words.
A figure begins to squirm on the floor. Jubilee's yellow trenchcoat wiggles out from under a prone, bloody form. Cyrus Parkman had finally awakened from his ordeal, but quickly realized who was on him, the trials of blood telling him why.
"LARIAT!" He shouted. "LARIAT! Oh my god! Don't die on me!"
Suddenly the front doors burst open. a detachment of Secret Service CAT Agents, led by Special Agent Jennifer Reynolds, his sister, Andromeda's Secret Service bodyguard, and platoon of SHIELD troopers, led by Nick Fury himself, entered the lobby, guns raised, securing the scene. Upon seeing the wounded forms of the Director and Agent Nichols, he immediately called for medics to assist them.
Agent Reynolds grabbed Cyrus' arm pulling him off Nichols so the SHIELD medics could do their work.
"Come on, Cyrus," She said holstering her MP-5 allowing her to grab him with both hands, "Andi's been worried sick about her big brother."
Once she had him by both his arms the CAT Agents then made a dash out to the armored Executive Limousine that sped off towards 8th Street once their passenger was safely inside.
"Castle this is Staircase four, the package is secure, repeat, the package is secure, Kilowatt is alive!"
We have breaking news in the kidnapping of Cyrus Parkman.
Moments ago Press Secretary Devin Mahoney, confirmed that the President's son was rescued by forces of the Secret Service and SHIELD in Washington.
"It is with greatest pleasure for me to announce that Cyrus James Parkman is ALIVE and reportedly doing well despite his harrowing ordeal.
"He is being transported to a secured location to be reunited with his family and to receive medical attention.
"In his rescue, Special Agent Kordel Nichols and the Director of the Secret Service were both wounded in an exchange of gunfire with heavily armed assailants. They both been taken to George Washington University Medical Center and are both listed in Critical condition."
We now go live to George Washington University Medical Center for up-to the minute developments.
"I'm standing in front of George Washington University Medical Center's Emergency Room, where in 1981 doctors here removed a bullet from President Ronald Regan, after an assignation attempt. Now doctors are attempting to save the lives of two Secret Service agents who were critically wounded rescuing the son of President Anthony Parkman.
"The Director of the Secret Service, a native of Dayton, OH, A former Cincinnati Police Officer and former White House Agent-In-Charge, was shot in the right shoulder and we are being told that he may be released later this evening.
"Special Agent Nichols, who we are also being told was instrumental in the tracking and rescue of the President's Son, was hit no less that four times in the upper torso.
"The Boston-area native, who joined the Secret Service as a clerk while still in high school, had been decorated for meritorious service six times since becoming a sworn Special Agent. Sources inside the hospital though have told us that his wounds are so extensive that he is not expected to survive the night.
"We will keep you posted of any new developments as they occur. This is Trish Tilby reporting."
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Commanding Officer's Quarters, United States Marine Corps Barracks, 8th & I St. 1903 EST
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Familiar with the grounds he, his wife and daughter are standing, the President paces the small room that is even now surrounded by a full rifle company of Marines on perimeter security and a platoon of SHIELD troops inside the CO's house.
A different time and his older brother would have ordered a tank parked right outside the window, but that was when Lt. General Jacob Grant Parkman, Jr. was merely a bird Colonel in command of the oldest post of the Corps.
Now his little brother gives the orders, the Commander-in-Chief issues one.
"Bring our son, NOW!"
A knock on the door before it opens by Lt Dugan. Agent Reynolds stands at the doorway, at her side a bright pair of green eyes as Kilowatt, clad head to toe in even brighter yellow, leaps into the arms of Kaleidoscope, Knight, and Kryptonite. But to Cyrus Parkman it will always just be Mom, Dad and Sis.
After what seems like both an eternity, and a split second, he breaks the loving bond of his family.
"Agent Reynolds," Cyrus tearfully addressed his sister's bodyguard. "Can you take Andi here to get some cookies?" He knelt down to look at the little girl he despised with the greatest of love. "I need to talk with Mom 'n' Dad, okay, Squirt?"
She wipes the tears from her eyes. "Okay, CJ," She hugs big brother again, then talking Auntie Jen's hand they leave the room, Agent Reynolds pauses as she softly taps wrists with Lt Dugan. "Mission accomplished!" they whisper as he closes the door behind them.
Taking a deep breath, the scene he had dreaded most for over a year, is about to unfold.
After what he and his family had just been through, the change of scenery helps little. He tries to remember the speech he worked out the night before he was kidnapped. He took Jean's advice and wrote it down. He got it 'just right,' but it is inside the Mariners jacket Jubilee's probably still wearing. So he decides to try a classical approach.
"Mom, Dad, I don't know the best way for me to break this to you, so here goes. I- That is that I'm a- Well, you see, I was born a-"
"You are a mutant." his mother finished for her son. A soft smile forms for her son. "Is that what you wanted to tell us, Cyrus?"
"How…? You know? Who told you?"
"Jake," the President replied. "He always knew you would be." The faintest hit of pride enters his voice. "He said it usually skips a generation, but, because he was so much older then me-"
"You mean, Uncle Jake… He was a …"
"His mutant gift was the ability to sense explosives." His dad explains as he looks fondly to the a framed photo. Dated from the second Persian Gulf War it proudly shows Marine Major Parkman standing in an Iraqi air base beside Army Capt. Parkman, the young helicopter pilot who would one day become President. "Remember when he used to say he could smell homemade bombs during the wars?"
"But? I never told anyone!"
"Except Oz?" He completed with a knowing grin. "He found out by accident, of course. It was when you were back home on Bainbridge Island, last year.
"When you two snuck away from Agent Woods, Jake knew where you would go and followed you two. You know Cyrus, Jake and I both used to go to that same secluded spot along the Clear Creek corridor when we were each your age. When he saw the two of you had discovered your gift, he told your mother and I, but made us vow not to reveal we knew it until you were ready to tell us. He spent six months preparing to teach you how to use your gift safely, until he was killed by that drunk driver."
"He would have been extremely proud of you, Cyrus," his mother chimed in. "Just as proud of you as we are."
"So you're not, mad?"
"Mad? Cyrus, we love you, NO MATTER WHAT."
The hug his parents gave him was most welcomed to the young mutant.
Less than on hour later, the President, Agent-In-Charge Ziegler, and Colonel Fury were all sitting in the Indian Treaty Room, the President soaking in every word the Director of the Secret Service spoke about what he knew happened to his son during the four-day ordeal. When he finished, the President was awestruck, almost like his first day in office, the day when the Avengers told the President-elect, the hero inside the Iron Man armor was one of his biggest campaign contributors.
"... You see, Mr. President, Staircase detail will do ANYTHING to safeguard the First Family! Even going to such extremes. But as far as I know, only Charlie Block and I have ever used our mutant powers in the line of duty."
"But what of the risks! If your agents were to be outed, even to save lives-"
"Risks!" Agent Ziegler interjected. "Mr. President, we're Secret Service! Risk is what we do! Let's face the facts; we have two highly trained, distinguished, dedicated, elite agents, looking for promotion to the ultimate assignment. If we find out that one of them can generate an impregnable force field around POTUS, or can teleport the Boss out of a bomb blast. Who would you lean towards?"
"Obviously the tactical advantages outweigh merely great instincts and high test scores," the Director added. "But not all the mutants that have joined the Secret Service had a power that aided their detail. I'm not entirely positive that I know everyone who is a mutant under my command. It doesn't matter if they shoot lightning out of their anus or not. Ability, skill, and dedication still mean something to this department!"
"I have more and more respect for your people every day. Moving along, what about Senator Crain? I can't believe even that old bastard would stoop so low as kidnapping and murder!"
"Stop wondering, sir," Col. Fury answered, "I sent a unit to arrest him, and we found him in his Chevy Chase home. He had blown his brains all over a Louis XIV desk."
"What a waste," reflected the President. "Ariel loves Louis XIV furnishings. What about Agent Nichols? I owe him the life of my son! What is his condition? Has his family been notified?"
"Sir, his only relatives, his aunt and uncle, were out of the country all week," Col. Fury replied. "Interpol helped us track them down in Lisbon. They are en route via a SHIELD Supersonic transport we speak, sir.
"As for Nichols, the update from GW's ER was not good. He took four shots, all center mass, but the gun used on him was ironically his own service pistol, which was loaded with specially designed armor-piercing rounds. His Kevlar vest had a trauma plate made out of adamantium which stopped them from hitting your son, but two of the slugs cliped the edge of the plate and logged themselves in Nichols' organs There is one in his lung, another in his liver. Mr. President, the attending doesn't give much hope for a full recovery."
Listing from a vent he stumbled across over a year ago, Cyrus Parkman eavesdropped on his father's conversation about the final moments of his rescue.
Lariat.
The only person in Washington he trusted enough to confide in after three years in the White House. One who risked his career to help him work out his mutant abilities. One who would be willing to trade his life for him.
He struggled with death before, when his beloved Uncle Jake was killed in a car crash only six months ago. He never got the chance to say goodbye to him. He owes Kordel Nichols at least that much.
But you don't just ask to walk out of the White House if you live here. And with the mass of press at the hospital he couldn't just walk to his room either. Then a thought crosses his mind and picks up a secured phone line and calls the Madison Hotel and asks for room 2271.
"Who the flamin' fuck is this!"
"Logan?"
"PARKMAN! Hey, Red! It's the Kid!" He calls out on the other end. "You alright?"
"Yea, but I'm calling about Lariat. I overheard Nick Fury talking to Dad about him and he says he might not make it. I need to ask a mondo huge-sized favor."
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George Washington University Medical Center, Intensive Care Unit. 2214 EST
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Despite the massive media crush, throngs of Secret Service agents and modern day closed circuit security surveillance, Cyrus Parkman walks through the ICU, escorted by Remy, Scott, and Jean, who's powers keep the four of them mentally invisible until they found the room set up for Special Agent Kordel Nichols, the one guarded by armed Federal Marshals. A subtle suggestion that everything was okay and they should get coffee from the nurse's station afforded them easy entry.
What they found was not welcoming.
Clear bags were introducing several drugs intravenously through his arm, a plastic tube was taped to his mouth to assist his breathing. After the cop killers were extracted from his organs, his chest was heavily bandaged and his head was taped up from the beating Crain's men gave him. Cyrus moved closer to his bedside. Remy softly patted him on the back, Scott places a hand on his shoulder, Jean ruffled his hair and gave him a warm reassuring smile.
"They said you took some shots for me in the museum, and Jubilee told me what you did when that scumbag Crain had you two," Cyrus paused long enough to fight back a sniffle. "You been risking everything for me since we met, I had to sneak out of the White House see you. They say you might not last the night, so I needed to give you something."
He removed his lucky green Mariners jacket, Jubilee returned it when he exited the underground tunnel near the White House and boarded the Blackbird.
"I know it ain't your fault that you're a Red Sox fan, but this is my uncle's lucky jacket, Jake bought it at the game where the Griffey's hit back-to-back homers, he wore it the day when my dad won the nomination, and on election day when he won the President's job, he gave it to me before... Well, it gave Jubilee some luck, and you could use a little extra something," He hung the jacket on the stand his IV unit was on. "Just do me one favor, please don't go, Lariat …"
He trailed off sobbing, the emotions finally getting the better of the 12-year-old.
Remy stepped up and put a hand on Cyrus' shoulder. "Don worry mon ami. Secret Agent Man gonna pull through," He reached inside his sleeve and removed four playing cards, four aces, which he placed under his pillow behind his head.
"Always keep these up my sleeve, ya know for a rainy day, or a really huge pot, ya could use a strong hand right 'bout now." He turned with Cyrus and faced Jean and Scott. "I gonna take him back to his folks now." Cyrus gave each of them a hug and exited the room with Gambit.
For the both of them it brought back memories of the day Jubilee was attacked in Boston. Jean searched out Scott's hand and squeezed hard. She then leaned on Kordel's bedside and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.
"That's for saving my husband at the racetrack," she then reached into a bag and pulled a red St. Luis Cardinals baseball cap. "Jubilee said to give this to you. She said it's special." She then placed the cap on the bedside table. Scott joined his wife at his bedside.
"Jubilee told us what the three of you went through and she was right, Kordel you were always one of us. You are an X-Man." Scott reached into his pocket and pulled something out inside his hand. "Professor Xavier gave this to me when I joined the X-Men," Scott produced a gold tie tack with a red X, the symbol of the X-Men. He clipped it to Kordel's bed sheet. "Now I'm giving it to you. I wished we could have done this in a more formal setting, but welcome to the team. Get better, Lariat, so we can welcome you properly."
Just as they were about to leave, an ominous sound echoed inside the room.
Special Agent Nichols' heard monitor was flat lined.
Instantly nurses burst into the room, oblivious to the two people who snuck into the room.
"CODE BLUE! BRING IN A CRASH CART, STAT!" One of the nurse's yelled grabbing a respirator bag while another nurse did chest compressions on Agent Nichols.
Two orderlies pushed a crash cart. A defibrillator and respirator equipment, next to his bedside. One smeared a conductive gel on the defibrillator paddles while the other rubbed them together before introducing a large jolt of electricity to the Secret Service Agent's heart, his body violently rose in the air by the current, but to no change in his reading.
"Charge to 300," Again nurses shocked his heart, to no avail.
"We're losing him people!" a veteran doctor, too used to witnessing patients loosing the fight against Cardiac arrest, announced to his team.
In a corner, two heroes embraced, helpless to save the life of an X-Man.
End of Chapter thirty-four
© David D. Amaya 2007