Chapter 34
Kentucky...
Hank is in the x-jet talking with Charles about Paige. "We're still trying to figure out precisely what it is young Ms Guthrie does but she does seem to be undergoing a rapid improvement. Using her powers has seemingly caused the sickness to pass."
Point proven by the fact Paige can be seen out the window, in white shorts and t-shirt, pointing at the x-jet excitedly saying something to Storm and possibly asking a barrage of questions if Hank's guess is correct.
"I'm glad Paige is improving," Charles expresses his view. "Do we know if she will be joining us?"
"I haven't had that talk with her mother yet."
"How is Lucinda?" Charles asks, having met the woman when he recruited Sam. She was a good woman.
"Fine. Pregnant but fine. She seems to be trying for her own baseball team," Hank jokes.
Charles chuckles lightly.
"I'll send the results of Paige's blood for you to study."
"Very well. Any other news?"
"Not really. Just Clark has gone on a crusade to raise the plight of the downtrodden underclass."
"...What?"
Hank explains how Clark is currently off investigating the mine where Sam's father works to try and expose the owner as an unscrupulous sort.
"Are we going to be needing the X-Men?"
Hank thinks that was a joke. "I'll let you know I..."
He trails off at the sound of squealing from outside and Storm running into the jet. "Hank. You need to come see this. It's Paige," she explains.
"Charles I'll need to call you back," Hank signs off as he runs down after Storm and follows her into the barn where Paige is standing next to a metal anvil, holding her arm up. Her arm that now looks as if made of metal.
"Oh my stars and garters," Hank mutters. "What happened here?"
"Ah was just touching the anvil and mah arm felt funny and when ah ripped mah skin off it was like this," Paige explains.
Hank takes her arm and examines it. "It feels like it is made of steel," he remarks as he presses his fingers into the now metal appendage.
"As if she mimicked the material of the anvil?" Storm asks.
Yes...apparently," Hank says in some astonishment.
Paige makes a fist with her metal hand and slams it down on the anvil making a ringing sound like metal hitting metal. "That is so awesome!" she enthuses.
"Did you feel any pain doing that?" Hank asks.
"No."
"Flex your hand for me," Hank requests and Paige does so. "Interesting," he murmurs. "The transformation hasn't impeded any of your motor functions."
"Huh?"
"He means you can still use your hand as if it was normal," Ororo puts into simpler terms.
"Yes but can we get her arm back to normal?" Hank wonders.
Paige looks at her arm and starts to pick at it. It takes some time and a little concentration but she manages to create a rip and pulls the metal skin off revealing her normal arm once again.
"May I have that?" Hank asks pointing at the discarded skin in her hand.
"Oh sure," Paige says and hands it over.
Hank takes the skin and feels the weight and texture. It is like a skin thick sheet of steel. He's going to need to do a lot more studying of young Ms Guthrie here.
At the nearby coal mine Clark and Sam are overlooking it from a nearby hill. Sam is watching Clark's eyes flash electric blue as his friend scans the interior of the mine.
"How far can you actually see?" Sam asks.
"Still trying to come up with a way to measure it," Clark informs Sam at that question. "I can't see all the way to the bottom of the mine but I can see enough. I'm up to at least a dozen health and safety violations."
"Ah knew it!" Sam accuses. "That Cunningham guy. He probably paid off everyone after the last accident," he gripes.
"Cunningham? That the owner?"
"Yeah. Total sleaze ball ta quote Tabby." Oh Sam would love to give that guy a piece of his mind...or worse, sic Tabby on him.
Clark's eyes scan around the whole area and he listens to everything being said. His eyes narrow as he spots something. "I don't think we're the first ones to think of exposing Cunningham. Look," he says pointing at something.
Sam spots a couple of people being manhandled by some heavies. It's too far away for him to make out details.
Clark listens. "The woman...she's proclaiming about freedom of the press...and...wow I didn't know there were that many colourful swear words," he relays what he can hear to Sam.
Sam laughs a little.
"That's Trish Tilby," Clark recognises her.
"The lady that interviewed us?" Sam inquires.
"Wasn't there Sam," Clark reminds his friend. That had happened when Clark had been locked away by Jor-El.
"Oh right," Sam remembers. "Ah wonder what brought her ta Kentucky though. This seems a little beneath a big tv reporter like her," he expresses his opinion.
"I don't know. I..."
"What?" Sam asks at Clark trailing off.
"The boss...he's ordering his men to take 'care' of her but to make sure it looks like an accident," Clark reports what his hearing is picking up. "Something about a ravine?" Clark looks to Sam.
Sam thinks. "On the road ta and from here there's this really narrow ravine you go through. You get landslips there occasionally. Hit a bus full of miners a few years back. Killed about 20."
Clark continues to listen. "They're planning to keep her locked up while some men go ahead, prepare some explosives to cause a landslide and then release her so she drives right into it."
"What's the plan? Bust in and rescue her?"
"No," Clark decides. "That would reveal us. I have a better idea. We'll go to that ravine and wait for his men to show up."
"And then beat them all up!" Sam says with some enthusiasm.
Clark looks at Sam oddly. "You've been spending too much time with Tabby," Clark critiques because that sounds like one of Tabby's plans. "But yes we will stop them and then we'll have a chat with Ms Tilby and find out what she's doing here. There must be a reason and it might help us."
Sam nods in agreement. Sounds like a good plan to him.
Eureka, California...
Lorna had not beat around the bush and just asked the very obvious questions one might ask Magneto and he told her about his quest to create a world where mutants would be safe and secure and how she could play a part in it. She had also, finally, gotten the story about how she even comes to be here at all and why he hasn't been in her life. There was a stab of anger at him for just leaving her mother but it was overwhelmed by her happiness at the fact he is finally here, in the same room, as her.
Lorna looks down at her hands in which she holds the metal pony figure her father had made for her. She so wished she could do that.
As if Magneto knows what she is thinking he moves to sit next to her and lifts the figure away with his powers. "Allow me to help you make a start with your powers," he says. "Do you trust me?"
Lorna nods.
Magneto smiles lightly. "Close your eyes Lorna," he asks of her. She does so. He takes down his block on her powers. "Now reach out with your feelings."
Lorna cracks an eye open. "Isn't that off Star Wars?" she asks sardonically.
Magneto smiles a little wider at her joke. "The principle applies to us. Our power is like an extra sense. The ability to sense electromagnetic fields. It is easier at first if you try to blank out your other senses but in time it will be as second nature to you. Now close you eyes," he repeats his instruction.
Lorna does so.
"Now I'll amplify the metal's electromagnetic signature to make it easier for you. Reach out with your feelings Lorna. Sense the electromagnetic fields around you. Look for the largest one. That'll be myself and then follow my link to the figure."
Lorna's eyes screw up tighter as she tries. At first she gets nothing but then there is a tingle and, as you look at her, there is a visible flare of green electromagnetic energy around her.
"Good," Magneto says as he senses her body start to generate its own magnetic field. One that is much more controlled than earlier in the kitchen. "Now reach out. Look for the brightest signature," he encourages her.
Lorna could sense lots around her but there were two particular big...impressions. The bigger one had to be her father. She then follows this trail, this link, to the second biggest impression which had to be the pony.
"Good. Now imagine taking hold of the figure as you would with your hands," Magneto instructs.
Lorna imagines invisible hands taking hold of the pony and she suddenly feels this connection to it.
"That's it. Excellent," Magneto compliments her. He had been sensing her attempt the whole way through and could feel she had succeeded. "Now lift it and take it from me," he instructs her.
Lorna concentrates and does so, as Magneto simply allows his grip on the pony go.
"Now open your eyes," Magneto tells her.
Lorna does so and there is the pony hovering in front of her face. Her face lights up. "Mom. Do you see?" she asks excitedly, feeling triumph at her accomplishment.
Suzanna smiles with pride. "I see honey."
"That's much better than I managed the first time I used my powers in such a fashion," Magneto says to her, feeling pride in his daughter's accomplishment.
Lorna beams with pride at the first ever compliment she has received from her father. She never thought she would ever experience it. Lorna raises her hands and sort of bounces the pony back and forth a little from one hand to the other although without ever actually touching it.
Then there is a sudden knock on the door which breaks Lorna's concentration and the pony goes flying. Magneto reacts faster than one might imagine and grabs it inches from the window and pulls it back.
"Sorry," Lorna says sheepishly.
"Who can that be?" Suzanna asks herself as she moves to the door. Since Lorna had been exposed her old friends had basically stopped talking to her. Suzanna opens the door...
BANG!
A gunshot rings out and Suzanna drops to the floor.
"MOM!" Lorna screams in panic as she rushes over to her fallen mother without giving a thought to the danger she is putting herself in. She looks up to see this man at the door, gun in hand, hatred in his eyes. On his right arm there is armband with the letters FOH upon it.
The man smiles cruelly and aims his weapon at Lorna. "Well the mutie bitch and her mother. Guess it's a good day," he remarks about being able to be rid of both of them together.
"Not for you!" Magneto roars as he rips the gun out of the man's hand with his powers. He then sends it flying back into the man's gut sending him tumbling backwards, winded. He lands on his back on the pathway, groaning in pain.
Magneto steps around Lorna and Suzanna and steps out through the door as 3 more men emerge from a car parked at the kerb at the end of the front garden. All with the same armbands on. Magneto snarls as he knows this human garbage. They all point guns at him. "You Homo Sapiens and your guns," he says with hatred to match theirs.
Magneto disarms them easily with his powers and has their weapons turned against them in an instant.
BANG!
The man who shot Suzanna finds himself shot as he lies on the ground. Not fatally though as Magneto plans to prolong his suffering for what he has done.
"Who is next?" Magneto asks them.
"You mutie freak! You'll never get away with this!" one of them shouts.
Magneto's eyes grow colder than usual. "It seems we have a volunteer." He cocks one of the weapons in readiness.
"Dad," a tiny voice says from behind him.
Magneto glances at his daughter who spoke.
"It...just let them go. We need to help mom," Lorna says, her lips trembling as is her voice. Tears fill her eyes.
Magneto turns his attention back to the his foes. "Take your friend and leave," he commands. "Today you get my mercy and shall live." When they hesitate he fires off a few shots at the ground beneath their feet. "Choose which action you desire before I change my mind!" he demands of them.
The 3 men decide they can't fight this and grab their injured friend. All the while their guns remain aimed at them, as the weapons float in Magneto's magnetic grasp. "And next time you're plotting how to kill us mutie freaks remember that you are alive only because a mutant girl asked for your lives to be spared," Magneto advises them although he doubts they'll appreciate the irony. He watches them get into their car and leave before he turns back to Suzanna.
Magneto kneels down and examines her. "Lorna do you have a first aid kit in the house?"
"Uh...yeah."
"Please get it."
Lorna runs off while Magneto looks grim. It's a head wound. The bullet struck Suzanna in the head. He finds a weak, thready pulse. He has to do his best to stabilise her now or she is lost and if she dies...those men will know his wrath and not even Lorna's pleas will stop him this time.
Lorna returns swiftly with the first aid kit and Magneto gets to work. He has had a lot of experience with wounds. Even ones like this. It is only a patch until he can get her back to his base and get her proper treatment.
"W-Will she be alright?" Lorna asks, hugging her self, scared out of her mind for her mother. Tears leak down her cheeks.
"Of course," Magneto assures his newly discovered daughter even if that is almost certainly a lie.
"What were those armbands about? Why did they attack us?" Lorna asks, if for no other reason than to distract herself from the sight before her.
"The so-called Friends of Humanity. They're a mutant hate group and they attacked us solely because we're mutants."
"Mom isn't!"
"She gave birth to one. That is enough justification for them. They will not rest until we are exterminated. That is what I am trying to protect our kind from Lorna and for that they label me a terrorist."
"I-I don't understand."
"Hatred such as that is beyond understanding Lorna. They hate us for simply existing."
They hurt her mother. How could they do that? They were her neighbours...literally. Lorna recognised them. She's talked to them. She thought they were nice people How could they do this? Something akin to righteous fury starts to well up inside Lorna.
Magneto stabilises Suzanna enough before he reaches into his pocket, pulls out a phone and dials. "Mystique. It's Magneto. I need Haze. Listen to me carefully," he says in deadly serious tones.
Kentucky...
Trish Tilby prided herself on bringing the truth. The fact she was the first to interview Professor Xavier and his X-Men was a highlight of her career but there were other stories that required her attention. Hence why she is in Kentucky.
It wasn't going so well.
She had been caught snooping around and Cunningham tried to intimidate her by locking her and her cameraman up using his heavies for awhile. Trish was not intimidated but after Cunningham let them go she decided a strategic retreat to her hotel might be a good idea so she can rethink her next action.
Her cameraman, Dave, was just driving them back through this narrow ravine at the minute. Trish is rubbing her sweaty head. God it was hot for October. Damn freaky weather.
"Uh...Trish?" Dave queries.
"What?"
"Look up ahead."
Trish looks up and in the middle of the road, tied up in a group, are some of Cunningham's thugs she recognises. Standing next to him are two other people. One she remembers interviewing at Xavier's and the other clad in red and blue with a strange S on his chest.
Dave brings the van to a halt as the figure known as Superman walks up to Trish's window and taps on it. Trish rolls it down.
"Good day Ms Tilby," Superman greets her in warm tones. He looks at the tied up thugs. "We need to talk," he tells her.
Trish snaps out of her surprised stupor. "Superman..is that what you prefer or do you have a name?"
"I have a name...but Superman will do," Clark decides. Yes, he brought the costume with him before the question is asked.
"We never got a chance to talk before," Trish raises as in when she was at the Institute doing her documentary he was nowhere to be found.
"I was...occupied. Personal matters," Clark brushes that area off with a vague answer. "I would prefer to stick to the here and now. Why are you investigating Mr Cunningham?"
"I could ask why you are here?" Trish points out.
"Sam asked me to come," Superman nods his head in his friend's direction using the excuse he and Sam thought up to explain his presence as they waited for Ms Tilby's appearance. "He was worried about his father. He works in that coal mine and I was looking into it for him. As I was, I spotted yourself and overheard Mr Cunningham planning to get rid of you. Our 'friends' there," he says in reference to the tied up goons, "were to cause a landslide, burying you but making it look like an accident."
Trish swears under her breath. What a bastard Cunningham is. It is then her brain catches up with what Superman said. "You overheard him? From where?" she asks, because the guy in the red and blue costume doesn't exactly blend in.
"I have very good hearing," Superman says mysteriously.
"How good?"
Superman smiles. "I understand that reporter's curiosity Ms Tilby. I admire it as matter of fact but I'm not ready to reveal all my secrets just yet. Lets stick to Mr Cunningham shall we. I would like to help Sam's father and if I can you but that means I need to know why you are here."
Trish chews it over in her head. Superman's blue eyes wait expectantly. Gee now those eyes were something. Being logical someone with his powers might be useful to aiding her. "As you know I got the first interview with Professor Xavier."
"I saw the documentary," is all Superman says about that.
"Really?"
"Yes. Very informative. You were very fair. Much more fair than others might have been."
Trish like the compliment. "Thank you. Truth is spending the time I did with those children made me believe that mutants and humans do have to find some way to co-exist so since then I've tried to promote that as best I can. It also means I've kept my ear close to the ground for any mutant related stories."
"Which brings us to Mr Cunningham," Superman can guess from her tone.
Trish nods to confirm that. "I got word he's been trying to bring in mutants to work his mine. You know ones with useful powers for that type of work. He promises them good and fair wages whereas lots of people don't give them the time of day."
"I take it his promises aren't worth much." It's a safe bet considering what Sam says about the man.
"No. He has them working in virtual slavery in dangerous conditions."
They must have been at the bottom of the mine where Clark couldn't see to which explains why he never noticed any mutants. "Yes I noticed his mine violates more than several health and safety laws," is what he says.
"He's paid up with the right people in local law enforcement so it gets overlooked."
Superman strokes his chin slightly as he frowns and thinks. "So question is what do we do about it?"
"Expose him. The miners have been trying to buy him out since that accident a couple of years back. If I can just get the evidence to expose him it'll be all the leverage they need."
"How about if he confesses to his misdemeanors on tape?"
"And how do you plan to pull that off?"
Superman grins and a mischievous sparkle comes to his eyes. When anyone asks Clark about this later he'll just say it was Rogue's bad influence on him.
At one of Magneto's bases...
The healers and doctors Magneto had at his disposal had managed to save Suzanna although with the brain trauma she has suffered none could give a definite answer whether she would ever wake up. She was in a deep coma and even if she did wake up what damage had been done to a woman he cared for? Would there be anything left of her?
It was hardly like Magneto needed another reason to despise humanity but they had still managed to give him one. He will have to find the time to make sure the 'Friends of Humanity' truly know whose wrath it is they have invoked.
Lorna looks up from her place beside her sleeping mother to her father who stands a distance away, his face a mask of controlled emotion. "S-so what happens to us now?" she asks, emotionally drained, her eyes red and puffy from crying.
"Now you stay by my side. I know this may not look like much," he gestures at the metal dome that encompasses his base. "But that will change soon," he promises. "I have plans in motion. I will also do everything in my power to help heal your mother," he swears, with as much emotion as he ever allows to flow into his voice.
Lorna's emotions were a wreck. Her mother...oh god her mother! More tears flow from her eyes to join the many others she has shed in the last few hours. She tries to keep calm. "W-What about our belongings?" Lorna asks. She has nothing but the clothes on her back.
"I will send some of my...of our mutant brothers to go collect them. It is best left until dark," Magneto replies.
"Oh. Ok," Lorna says, not seeing any reason to argue. She is certain her father knows what he is doing. Her father...she trusts him. He is all she has right at the minute.
Just then the door to this infirmary opens and in walks a slender boy with silver hair.
"You summoned me father," Pietro announces his arrival.
Lorna's jaw drops. Father?
"Indeed. I did," Magneto confirms. "I have someone I want you to meet."
"You mean the hottie with the green hair?" Pietro asks, jerking his thumb in Lorna's direction.
Magneto sighs painfully at his son's attitude, especially when there is a deeply injured woman lying the room. His anger rises slightly and it comes out in his tone of voice. "That hottie as you refer to her happens to be your sister Pietro," he snaps in a sharp tone.
"Say what?" Pietro asks. Surely he misheard that.
"Lorna is your half-sister," Magneto states it. "And that woman lying injured is her mother so please for once try and be respectful," he tells his son.
Pietro turns his head to look at the girl in disbelief and she is looking back at him with the same expression. "I...you serious?" he asks his father.
"Pietro am I ever not serious?" Magneto asks his son.
"Good point," Pietro acknowledges. He then zips over to her making Lorna blink. "Well hi there sis," he greets her, lazily dropping his arm across her shoulders. "I'm Pietro. I also go by Quicksilver."
Pietro then blurs around the whole room in a circle before returning to where he started. "I think you can see why," he says in such a tone as it is self-explanatory.
Right now a lot of people would be demanding to know where they got their surprise sister from and Pietro will raise that subject with his father but obviously this is not the time nor place. Even Pietro can tell that from the tone of voice and look his father is carrying.
"You're my...I have a brother!" Lorna says in disbelief. She never actually asked earlier whether her father had ever had any other children.
"Not just any brother but the best big brother any little sister can ask for," Pietro says with his usual cocky arrogance.
"Do I have any other siblings?" Lorna wonders, momentarily putting her worry and grief over her mother to one side.
Pietro looks to his father to field that one.
"Pietro does have a twin sister, Wanda. She has chosen another path and forsaken me," Magneto phrases it as.
"Why?" Lorna asks, confused about why her sister would do that.
"We don't have the best relationship. I have made mistakes," Magneto confesses with genuine sounding sadness.
"So?" Lorna asks, not seeing that as a good reason. "Whatever those mistake are surely they can be overcome. We're suppose to be a family and families stick together." Maybe it is what has happened to her mother that is prompting her to say this but for now it is what she believes.
Pietro grins. "I like her. We're keeping her right."
Magneto fixes Pietro a glare for his glib attitude. "Yes. We are...and as for Wanda. It's complicated Lorna and not a story to be told after such a trying day. There is plenty time to discuss Wanda another day," Magneto puts off that talk for many reasons, primarily because of the condition Suzanna is in.
"So what brings you here sis?" Pietro asks, sounding a little more serious.
"My mom and I...we were attacked by humans," Lorna says, the word 'humans' almost sounding as hate-filled as Magneto says it.
"This your mom?" Pietro asks at the sleeping figure, with a bandaged head and the usual tubes and monitors and stuff you associate with someone who has been badly injured and in hospital. Ok so his father already said it was but he's looking to strike up a conversation with his newly discovered sister.
Lorna nods. "Yes," she says with a sniffle and a lump in her throat.
"Hey I'm sure she'll be fine," Pietro assures his new sister, sounding genuine for once and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder for support. "And as for humans...they're just jealous of us. We get the cool powers and they get squat. We're the future. They're the past. So what is it you can do...if you don't mind me asking?" Pietro adds on, remembering the look his father is giving him.
Lorna looks around and spots Pietro is wearing a silver looking watch. She raises her hand, remembers what she did in the house and the watch comes off Pietro's wrist and hovers in the air. "I take after our dad," she says with some pride at that.
"Huh? Go figure," Pietro mutters. All he can hope is that she doesn't take after their father in any other way.
Kentucky...
Darkness descends upon the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Alan Cunningham is preparing to go to bed in his large home situated in a large portion of land he owns. He is just standing on his balcony, dressed in his pyjamas and robe, looking out at the night sky one last time.
There is a sudden gust of wind that blows his thinning hair about.
"Mr Cunningham I presume."
Alan spins round to be greeted by a tall youth clad in red and blue. With one hand he is grabbed by his robe and lifted into the air with consummate ease. The youth smiles. "Lets talk," he says and the next thing Alan Cunningham knows is the world blurring around him.
When it stops blurring Alan finds himself in some dark, dingy, filthy place being dropped to the floor.
"What in tar nation? Do you know who ah am boy?" Cunningham demands to know.
"Oh I know Mr Cunningham," Clark says in a deeply serious tone. "That's why you're here."
"And where is here?"
"Oh we're in your mine...but it's perfectly safe right? I mean you do meet all the current safety regulations right?" Clark walks over to a support beam and flicks it with his finger. It breaks in half. "Oops," he says sheepishly. "Sometimes I just don't know my own strength," he says with a goofy grin.
Worry starts to pepper Alan's brow.
"Well I'm sure that was a one off. I'm sure this support is just fine," Clark says as he walks to the one next to where Cunningham is standing. Clark prepares to flick it.
"Stop!" Cunningham yells. "Just stop!"
"Why?"
"Why?" Cunningham asks incredulously. "Are you tryin ta kill us?"
"Nope. I'm just proving how you meet all current safety regulations." Clark not so gently taps the support which creaks under his immense strength.
"You're insane!" Cunningham yells.
"Now Mr Cunningham there is no reason to resort to name calling," Clark mildly rebukes him. "We're both intelligent men."
Clark flicks at yet another support beam, cracking it.
"Stop!" Cunningham pleads.
"Why?" Clark asks, pretending to be clueless.
"Because you'll bring the whole mine down upon us!"
"Now Mr Cunningham you know as well as I do if you are meeting all regulations there is redundancy built in and that any mine can afford to lose a few little support pillars."
"Not here!"
"Oh and why is that?"
"Because there isn't any redundancy! I was trying to save money!"
"Uh huh. I see," Clark says calmly as he flicks at another support pillar. "Shouldn't that kind of thing have been noticed during inspection?"
"I paid them off!" Cunningham says, panic making him spill secrets like a leaky bucket.
"You know I hear you've been hiring mutants. As you can see I'm pretty strong. Think I could get a job? I'm sure you offer a fair and equitable rate."
"Are you kidding? I don't pay them anything. I just feed them enough so they can work."
Clark pauses from flicking another support. "That's slavery Mr Cunningham."
Alan is sweating buckets. He's amazed the mine hasn't already caved in. This...freak is going to kill them. "So? They're mutants. Slavery is the best thing for them."
Clark's face darkens and in an instant he in front of Cunningham and lifting him up with one hand. He turns to look to his right. "You get all that Ms Tilby?"
A black sheet gets pulled down to reveal Trish, her cameraman and Sam who had been hiding in a little alcove and had recorded everything. Oh they were never in any danger by the way. All the beams Clark broke were extras he put in when they were setting this up.
Trish is grinning like the cat who got the cream. "Oh I got it alright. Care for that interview now Mr Cunningham?"
"This'll never make it to court! I was under duress!" Cunningham protests.
"Doesn't have to," Trish counters. "Your confession on the prime time news will bring in a federal investigation and unlike the local authorities I'll think you'll find them a might harder to bribe...especially when I'll be watching you."
Clark jerks the man higher. "I'll be watching you too," he promises and in this dull place the burning red glow he brings to his eyes is particularly unsettling. "Don't make me come back here to have to settle this up Mr Cunningham because if you do I won't be half as nice," he warns, trying to be as intimidating as possible.
Clark then puts the man down. "Now why don't you get going," he tells him. "The way out, in case you don't know, is that way," he says pointing down the tunnel. "3rd left, 2nd right, another right and you're home free."
Alan starts walking. He's not staying here with that superstrong freak. He'll find some way out of this situation. He swears and then he'll get back at all of them. He swears that as well.
"Or was that 2nd left and 3rd right?" Clark asks as soon as the man is out of earshot, with a knowing little smirk.
Sam bends over double with laughter because it was that second one. Who knows where Cunningham will end up or how long it will take him to find his way out.
Later at the Guthrie farm...
"Oh mah God!" Paige almost shrieks as Clark and Sam tell the story of what they have been up to to Sam's family as they all stood outside, apart from Sam's father, not too far away from the x-jet. Well ok what Sam, Clark and Superman got up to. To keep Clark's identity secret it ended up being a 3 man story. "Ah can't believe what you did. Ah can't believe you never asked meh along!" she complains at her brother.
Sam groans. "Paige you have just discovered your powers. You have no control over them," he argues.
"But...but I just...want to be like you Sam. A hero. Have powers. Be special!"
Clark cocks his head slightly. "Paige you don't need powers to be special. You already were by just being Paige Guthrie."
"Listen ta the young man Paige," Lucinda tells her daughter. "He has a wise head on his shoulders."
"Well I know a few people who might argue that one," Clark jests.
Paige huffs. She never felt special before. It's why she so badly wanted to be a mutant. She hated...no hated was the wrong word. She loved her family but didn't like the farm life. She wanted to be elsewhere...to see the world...to be unique like Sam...and now she was. Finally she had gotten what she always dreamed of. Like God had decided to finally answer her prayers. The prayers she sometimes said through tears as she cried in desperation at her desire to be something else.
"So who is this Superman fella?" Sam's brother, Jay, asks.
"A friend," Sam answers.
"He's always around if you need him," Clark says with a sly smile.
Sam chuckles lightly. No-one else gets the joke as Beast and Storm are back in the jet for the moment talking to the Professor about something. Clark was choosing not to eavesdrop. Sam had actually enjoyed what they had done. He worried about his family's future, sure, but his pa was already on the phone to other workers about trying to buy the mine again so he hoped it could all work out for the better.
Clark's head turns and he frowns slightly.
"What is it Clark?" Sam asks at his friend's expression.
"Uh...I can hear a van approaching."
"You sure?" Sam's younger sister, Melody, asks. "Ah don't hear nothin."
"I have sharp ears," Clark tries to play that off.
"Actually ah do hear it," Sam says and he walks off towards the drive way up to the house. When the van comes into view he recognises it. "It's Ms Tilby," he says.
'Why would she be coming here?' Clark thinks to himself. Superman and Sam had said their farewells and basically they were leaving the story in her hands. They trusted her to see it through.
The van pulls up just as Beast and Storm descend from the jet. Beast's face seems to light up just a little as Trish exits her van. "Patricia?" he queries.
It takes Trish a minute to put together the familiar voice to the unfamiliar holowatch image. When she does she smiles widely. "Henry!" she greets him enthusiastically.
"Patricia?" Sam questions.
"Henry?" Clark questions. "Is there something going on I don't know about?" he asks Sam since he missed the whole interview thing and Mr McCoy and Ms Tilby seem to be speaking in very warm tones to each other.
"Nothing ah know about," Sam responds.
Ororo smiles slightly and knowingly steps off to one side.
"What...how do you look...like...?" Trish asks, confused, gesturing at Hank.
Hank suddenly remembers the projection around him. "Oh...a hologram projection. It's so I don't startle anyone," he explains.
Trish wants to know more about that because that seems like a remarkable piece of technology.
"What brings you here Patricia?" Hank asks, not that he is unhappy to see her. He's not. He's very happy to see her again. He found her an interesting and stimulating woman.
"You didn't hear about me from your friends?" Patricia queries, a little confused that he wouldn't have by now.
"Oh the mine! Yes...yes I did but I was more meaning here, here."
"Oh!" Trish laughs at her silliness. "Well I just wondered...I knew someone had to bring Sam home and I just wanted to see... I hoped it would be you," she says and blushes slightly as she realises what she said. She looks around and spots Sam and Clark but no Superman. She looks to Hank. "Your friend Superman?" she asks after.
"Oh off saving the day somewhere," Hank replies vaguely, covering for Clark. "He's often busy doing that. I'm not certain when he'll return. If he will at all. He comes and goes as he's needed."
"I see," Trish says.
"Would you like some tea?" Hank asks her. "I do manage to bring along a box with me and we could catch up," he proposes.
"Sounds lovely," Trish smiles.
Hank offer his arm which Trish snakes her arm through and they move off inside the jet together.
"Are you seeing this?" Sam asks in disbelief at what he is witnessing.
"I'm seeing it," Clark confirms.
"Huh, Mr McCoy has a girlfriend. Who knew?"
"Not us apparently."
Clark then finds his arm getting pulled at by Paige. "So Clark you want ta see what ah can do? Ah've learned a new trick since you left earlier," she says, basically wanting to show off.
Clark smiles politely. "Sure. Why don't you show me."
Paige leads Clark into the barn and Sam and the rest of his brothers and sisters follow. Inside the barn are objects of varying materials laid out on a workbench.
Paige picks up a stone, concentrates a little and then rips the skin off her arm to reveal a new stone arm underneath. She does the same with objects made from other materials; wood, plastic, metal. She had found over the course of the day, as she practised with her new powers, that it helped to hold an object of the material she was trying to turn into.
"That's very good Paige," Clark praises her for mastering that level of control in only a few short hours.
"Isn't it!" she says with a huge grin, really appreciative of the praise she is getting. Her expression then turns thoughtful. "Ah wonder though..."
Sam panics. He knows that look. "Now Paige don't be gettin' any stupid ideas," he tries to warn her off.
Paige ignores him and proceeds to rip her skin off...all her skin off and standing there is now a Paige seemingly made entirely of metal. "Oh mah God! This is amazing!" she exclaims as she looks at herself.
"Paige!" Sam shouts in worry.
"What?"
"You shouldn't be pushing your powers that far this soon," Sam tells her. "Change back. Now!" he orders.
Paige rolls her metal eyes at him. "Ok fine," she sulks...and proceeds to rip off her metal skin.
Sam and Clark instantly cover their eyes as do her other brothers. Her sisters are giggling and pointing at her.
"What now?" Paige asks at her brothers' actions, her hands out to the side.
"Paige...you ripped your clothes off," Sam says, incredibly uncomfortable, at being feet away from his, naked as the day she was born, little sister.
Paige looks down and blushes all the way to her toes as she tries to cover her naked body. She then makes a break for the house, dashing inside.
Ororo comes striding in to the barn after seeing Paige's naked backside disappear into the house. "What is going on?" she wants to know.
"The start of many, many years of therapy Ms Munroe," Sam replies, shuddering at the memory.
The next morning Paige is all packed and ready to leave, to go to the Institute with Sam. Her parents had talked it over with Mr McCoy and Ms Munroe over the course of the day yesterday and last night and had agreed to let her attend. Paige was so excited she could barely contain herself. She was so excited she barely slept a wink of sleep last night. She just knows this is going to be fantastic. Not even the teasing of her sisters about ending up naked last night could spoil Paige's mood.
Paige was not the only one in a good mood. Hank was too after spending some time with Trish last night. They had exchanged contact details. He can't remember the last time he actually did that with a woman even before his mutation altered his physical appearance. He admired her greatly for her beliefs in relation to humans and mutants. They had talked about that a lot as well and he hoped they would talk about much more in the weeks and months to come. He almost felt like a teenager with a crush.
Trish had departed to finish off her story first thing this morning. Hank understood the demands of a reporter...mostly because one of his students was taking it up as a career.
Speaking of Clark he was on the phone to his girlfriend who was currently laughing her head off as Clark told her what he did to Mr Cunningham.
"Oh mah God," Rogue says trying to catch her breath. "That was...ya know ah'm so proud of ya. That was brilliant."
Clark can't help but smile at the compliment. "Well thank you. I think we can safely say though it was your influence on me."
"Can we now?" Rogue questions that.
"Oh definitely. I think everyone knows which of us is bad."
"Oh? Ah'm a bad girl am ah?" Rogue asks, her voice taking on a deep sultry huskiness.
"Yep."
"And tell meh Clark what do ya do ta bad girls?" she asks him, virtually purring sensuality, her tone making Clark shiver pleasantly.
"Oh I can think of a few things," he replies, with that bad boy smirk creeping onto his face.
"Only a few?" Rogue asks, sounding disappointed.
"Well maybe more than a few."
"Well ah'm all alone in mah room Clark so why don't ya tell meh about what y'all will do ta meh and don't spare tha details sugah," she tells him, a suggestive tone pouring from every one of her words.
God Clark feels like just running all the way back to New York and doing everyone one of those things he can think of to her. "Don't spare the details?"
"Nope."
"You know you're asking for trouble."
"Trouble's mah middle nahme. Now what are ya goin ta do about it?"
"What I'm going to do is to take you and..." Before he can finish that thought Clark finds the phone is being snatched out of his hand by a displeased looking Storm. She brings it to her ear. "Rogue what you and Clark do in the confines of your bedrooms is your business but the mansion phones are not for that type of conversation," she rebukes both Clark and Rogue. They should know that there is a chance they can be overheard.
Storm ends the call and hands the phone back to Clark who couldn't look more embarrassed if he tried. Storm can imagine Rogue has the same look. "We're leaving in 10 minutes," she says to Clark as if she didn't just interrupt him about to partake in, what she can guess was going to be, phone sex.
Storm then leaves the quiet little corner Clark had found himself, trying so very hard not to laugh at the mortified expression on his face.
A short time later, after all the appropriate farewells are made and Sam promises his folks he'll look after Paige, they make their departure.
Sam will be damned though if he can ever figure out when Paige ever needs to be looked after. She's a...tomboy he guesses is the word you would use. More than that though she hits harder than he can and this comes from personal experience of Paige's right hook.
As for Clark's secret identity they decided to save the decision about that for when they got back to the mansion. There was no need to rush about it.
Shortly after take off Ororo informs them they won't be heading straight back to the mansion. That they'll be making a detour to California. When Sam asks why he gets told how Cerebro had detected the use of magnetic powers. That's what she and Beast were talking to the Professor about last night.
"Magneto?" Clark inquires at the magnetic powers.
"Most likely," Hank says.
Paige's face lights up at hearing that name. Sam had told her all about Magneto. "You mean mah second day being a mutant and ah get ta fight bad guys!" she almost screams in excitement. If she wasn't strapped in to the chair she would have bounced out of it.
Sam groans at his sister's attitude and looks to the heavens. "Someone just shoot meh," he mutters.
Clark laughs slightly at that.
"The chances are by the time we get there Magneto will be long gone but as you know, normally, Magneto can shield himself from a scan," Hank says.
"So why did Cerebro detect him and why was he in California? That's what we'll be trying to find out," Clark can assume.
Storm nods. "Yes...although the 1st part we will unlikely get an answer to but the Professor got a good fix, down to the street Magneto was on. We'll have a look around and see what we can find. Low key presence. We're not there to attract any sort of attention," she defines the mission.
Sam rubs his head. The last thing he wants is his sister any where near Magneto but this comes as part of being an X-Man. As much as he wishes to he can't protect her from that forever and chances are, from the sound of it, there will be no danger this time. Magneto is probably long gone. Sam hopes so anyway. In any case he'll be keeping a close eye on Paige. "If we're going for low key and blending in then we'll have ta leave Paige on the jet," he says with a smirk, joking to rile Paige up.
"Hey!" Paige protests. "Ah can be low key and blend in," she insists.
"When?" Sam asks her back. "You can't do that on the farm you grew up on."
"At least ah'll be useful in looking for clues," Paige argues. "You're useless. You once spent a whole day trying and failing ta find our prize cow," she knocks Sam's detective skills.
"It broke free and ran off!" Sam argues.
"It was in the barn...the whole time! And you missed it! Lewis ended up finding it!" And Lewis is their youngest brother and was like 1 at the time.
"It wasn't! I looked!" Sam insists.
"It so was!" Paige argues back.
"Wasn't!"
"Was!"
"Wasn't!"
"Was!"
"Can we open the door and throw her out?" Sam asks, jerking his thumb at his sister.
"Can we open the door and throw him out?" Paige asks, jerking her thumb at her brother.
The other 3 persons present just burst into fits of laughter at the squabbling siblings.
"The answer is no to both your questions," Storm tells them, still chuckling.
Sam sighs and looks to the heavens. So it begins. He looks around the jet and spots his sister's discarded skins that had been collected up. "Did we have ta bring those along?" he asks, pointing at the revolting things in his opinion.
Hank glances backward. "Yes. I need to study the discarded husks so we can understand young Paige's powers."
"Husks," Clark murmurs as he contemplates an idea he just had.
"What was that Clark?" Ororo asks.
"Husks," he repeats louder.
"What about them?"
"Well everyone needs a codename. How about, for Paige, Husk?" he proposes. He looks to her. "What do you think?"
Paige thinks on it for a moment. "Husk," she says the word, trying it out. She then starts to smile. "Husk. Ah like it," she gives her approval.
Ororo and Hank share a look and then both shrug. "Husk it is then," Storm agrees and it was appropriate considering what Paige did.
Paige can't stop smiling. This...this is what she has always wanted for her life and whatever the future holds she knows one thing. This is where she belongs.
Author's Note: Didn't seem like the right place for Lorna to get her codename but she'll get it later. Paige is kinda easier since her discarded skins are referred to as husks. Kinda sweet wasn't it how Lorna and Magneto were bonding especially now over a dislike of humans and Lorna's journey towards the dark side begins. I did take some time thinking of what would happen to Suzanna. Ranging from a mild injury to killing her. In the end I chose the coma option. Severe enough to raise up some hatred within Lorna but still alive and leaving it open for Suzanna to wake up and return one day. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; The X-Men get invited to a function hosted by Tony Stark.