Chapter 15
It was a beautiful crisp, clear night, nearing the end of April. It was a large house surrounded by lovely, well maintained grounds. It belonged to the Worthington family but only one particular member of that family was currently using it as he continued to hide from his family what he had become. That was easier to do when they were in England and he was here in the States.
That person, right now, is peacefully asleep, completely unaware of the shadowy figure casing out his place. That figure that is running towards the metal railed fence at full speed. A figure whose brown trenchcoat sweeps out behind him as he runs. He reaches into his inner pocket and pulls a short staff out. He extends it and using it like a pole vault, plants it to the ground and propels himself over the fence.
As he lands the moonlight illuminates his features to reveal the mutant thief and Acolyte of Magneto; Gambit.
He retracts his staff, takes a moment to check no-one spotted him and resumes his run for the house. He stops by a ground floor window and uses his powers to score a smiley face into the glass. He can't help a small smile at his own humour.
His powers clicks on and the window melts. Most people think he can only make things explode but what use would that be to a thief? Stealth is the name of the game and his powers have many levels at which they can be used. He made sure to figure them all out.
Gambit steps onto the sill and bends down. Lots of expensive paintings and statues line the hallway in front of him but that's not what concerns him right now. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a spray can. He aims it for the floor and sprays out a fine mist...which reveals the red coloured laser grid at ankle level.
Gambit reaches into his pockets, pulls out two staffs and clicks them together. He reaches into a pouch on his belt and pulls out a small, what looks likes a trigger and slides it into a slot on the staff. He pulls out two identical pointed ends, like spears and slides them into each end of the staff.
Gambit makes a leap onto a dresser by the wall, aims the staff towards each end of the hallway and the spears fire, revealing a line attached to each. They impact the wall at either end giving him a high-wire with which to avoid the laser grid. He zips up his coat to make sure it isn't dangling down and climbs onto the staff part. There's two small buttons. He presses one and the staff slides along on tiny motors to the far end of the hallway.
What Gambit wants is actually in the basement directly below him. He reaches down through a gap in the laser grid and like the window uses his powers to essentially dissolve a hole through the floor.
He drops down silently and lands in what would otherwise be a very secure room.
He looks around until his eyes fall upon what he seeks.
On a pedestal sits half of a green spider statue about the size of both his hand combined. Gambit picks it up...
...and that is when the door behind him creaks open.
Standing there is a blond man with a pair of white wings attached to his back in a pair of pyjama bottoms. Warren Worthington III...or a couple of Christmases ago the Angel of New York. Not his finest hour by any stretch of the imagination. That's where he first learned he was a mutant after almost being kidnapped by Magneto and saved by Cyclops, Rogue and the boy who is now known as Superman of the X-Men.
Warren doesn't know if it was his mutant power or simple paranoia but something woke him up and he just knew he wasn't alone in his house tonight. "See anything you like?" he asks, his tone angry at being robbed.
Gambit eyes him for a moment before tossing one of his playing cards at Warren's feet, which explodes.
The dust thrown up gives Gambit ample time to get back up to ground level the way he came and then blast his own exit with another card through the wall as he makes a run for it. He leaps back over the fence same way he came in.
He slows as he reaches the road where stands a hooded figure, face unseen.
Gambit hands him the spider statue.
A gust of wind catches both their attentions and up above them flies Warren, his powerful wings creating a down draft. He hadn't been disorientated for very long before launching his pursuit. He flies toward them and can see under the hood the vague outline of a man with green tattoos on his face. The man raises his hand to his head and a searing pain lances through Warren's brain, knocking him out and sending him crashing to the ground.
Mesmero smiles inwardly. Foolish boy. So afraid of what he is. Can't he understand that destiny cannot be stopped. He raises the statue to in front of his face and smiles with satisfaction. Half the key was his! At last! It had taken far too long to reach this point. He was now one step closer to freeing his Master. People like Warren, who refuse to embrace their destiny. will have no place in his Master's world.
Suddenly the metal railings start vibrating and creaking as a great force bends and rips them from their foundations.
Mesmero momentarily pauses. It can only be one person. He turns to leave swiftly...but 3 of the metal rails slam in front of him, blocking his path.
Mesmero backs up as more railings slam down around him, completely surrounding and imprisoning him.
"Going somewhere?" a cheerful voice asks.
Mesmero turns round to see a teenage girl with long green hair in green armour and cape floating a foot off the ground. Next to her is a man in red armour, purple cape and helmet, also floating. Her father, Magneto.
"Whoever you are," Magneto addresses the man. "You have courage. Not everyone would hypnotise one of mine to do their stealing."
Mesmero's face twists in anger and he raises up his telepathic powers...only to be hit by two powerful psychic blasts...courtesy of the combined might of the 2 Lady Masterminds.
"Don't even try it baldy," Regan Wyndgarde tells him from off to the right.
"For once I agree with my sister," Martinique Wyndgarde says, standing next to her sister. "Even you can't take both of us on."
Around Mesmero and Gambit the Acolytes, well some of them, they were in a hurry and grabbed who was around, gather to surround them. Sabretooth, Colossus, Pyro, Amelia and once again Quicksilver who Magneto was being very generous to lately. Last but not least is a certain young woman with a white stripe in her otherwise brown hair who has met this joker before.
"Mesmero!" Rogue snorts with fury. It was her that noticed Gambit was missing in the first place. They were supposed to meet up for a little...fun. Not that kind. Just you know, go out, blow off some steam one day when they're not defending mutantkind. Sheesh that's hard work some days. Rogue almost misses Logan's training sessions...almost. Anyway her point is she noticed Gambit was missing, brought it to Magneto's attention, they tracked Gambit down and here they are.
"You know him?" Magneto queries of his Acolyte.
"Oh yeah. We go way back," Rogue spits out angrily, her green eyes narrowing as she glares at the tattooed telepath. "He mind-fucked Jean, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Spyke into stealing these rings for him last year. Never did find out what for."
"And now he's using one of my Acolytes to steal something else," Magneto ponders. "What is your goal?" he demands, thinking perhaps it is related. Doing the same thing twice but why?
Mesmero is trying to hold off the two powerful female telepaths that are the two Lady Masterminds but he still has control of Gambit who he mentally instructs to aid him.
Magneto sees it instantly and tightens the railings around Mesmero to squeeze hard. "You have three choices. Release your mental hold on Gambit or I have my dear Lady Masterminds tear your mind apart or I simply keep squeezing," he offers and squeezes the man a little harder as a show of proof of his intent. "Now what is it to be?" he asks of his helpless prisoner.
"Alright," Mesmero relents and releases Gambit.
Gambit blinks, shakes his head and looks around. "Where am I?" he asks, speaking rarely for him in the 1st person showing he is a little disorientated.
Rogue goes to his side. "Ya got a little mind-controlled, Swamp Rat. Ah'm genuinely shocked. Ah didn't think ya had a mind ta beh controlled," she teases with a smirk.
"Why do you constantly have to wound Gambit like d'is Cher?" he asks with a pout.
"How else am ah suppose ta entertain mahself?" Rogue quips sassily.
"Gambit has a few ideas," he proposes suggestively.
"Keep dreamin Cajun. Keep dreamin," Rogue tells him with a wink to show she isn't not interested.
"If you two are done before I get sick," Sabretooth growls at them. Those two really were going to make him sick with their flirting.
Magneto, meanwhile, loosens his grip on Mesmero and takes the spider statue from him. He looks at it. Doesn't seem special at first glance but there has to be more than meets the eye for this Mesmero to go through this much effort and danger. Time to get answers. "Lets find out if this relic was really worth crossing me," he decides, ominously.
Beneath Mesmero's feet the ground cracks as Magneto uses the metal railings to lift the ground up Mesmero is standing on. As soon as Mesmero is clear of the ground. "Amelia. Home," he orders and the teleporting mutant releases her green cloud which encompasses them one by one.
On the ground, not too far away, Warren groggily comes round just in time to see them leave. His anger and gaze focusses in on one person in particular. The one who tried to abduct him by force that Christmas past. "Magneto," he grates with rage. Now he knows who is behind this...but what to do about it?
Wait. Didn't Cyclops say that if he ever needed the X-Men they would be there?
That being the case Warren better get going. He has a long flight ahead of him.
At the Institute...
Claire is a very light sleeper. Comes from growing up on the streets. Basically she sleeps with one eye open. It means it doesn't take much to awaken her.
Right now her room-mate/girlfriend was tossing and turning quite violently in her sleep next to her.
Yes they slept in the same bed. Be grown up about it.
Claire tries and grabs Marie by the shoulders as the girl mutters away clearly deeply disturbed by whatever dream she is having.
"No...no...He rises...the Horsemen come...Death...War...Famine...Pestilence...darkness touches all corners of the Earth..."
"Marie. Marie!" Claire tries to shake her girlfriend awake, worry deep in the pit of her stomach. She's never seen Marie have a dream like this.
Marie shoots up, knocking Claire to the side, her eyes snap open, her whitened over eyes which only ever happens when she's seeing the future. "The First One!" she shouts, her voice trembling in panic and fear.
Claire wraps her arms around Marie in a bear hug and feels her girlfriend shaking violently, breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating. "Shh, shh, honey, I'm here," she says soothingly.
Marie blinks, her eyes regaining their normal green colour as she regains awareness of where she is and who is with her. "Claire?" she asks in a tiny, shaky voice.
"I'm here. It's me," Claire assures her.
Marie's head drops into the crook of Claire's neck. She takes deep breaths.
"Breathe honey. Just breathe for me," Claire says as she rubs Marie's back
"Oh Claire," Marie says, her voice almost a sob. "I was so afraid. There was darkness everywhere, consuming everyone...and I couldn't see you...and the world...and the world...I...I...it's slipping away...I can't..."
Claire's heart breaks. She doesn't know what to say really. "It was a dream," she tries.
"No. No it wasn't," Marie knows. It was a vision. A terrible vision. She hasn't had a proper one in weeks, months, her foresight being blocked by some great unnamed force but this was a vision and this...this was awful. Her whole body is still shaking.
"What can you remember?" Claire asks, not releasing her hug or stopping her attempts at comforting her girlfriend.
"Spider," Marie says strangely.
"What?" Claire asks, clearly baffled by that.
"There was a great big spider...walking over a river...in a city...that's how it began," Marie explains what she can remember. She tries to continue tugging at the memories. "And then the darkness came...and...that's it. It's gone," she says, the memories slipped away.
"Do you need the Professor?" Claire asks.
"No. I...I'll talk to him in the morning. I...just hold me, please," she whispers tearfully.
Claire tightens her hold. She'll never let go. She swears. "Whatever this darkness is I'll burn it away. I promise. It'll never harm you."
Marie tries to smile...but she can't manage it because she knows no matter how much Claire might mean what she says she can't stand up to what is coming. She isn't sure anyone can.
Course these days Marie isn't the only one with the ability to summon up a vision. In her room with Tabby and Amara, Wanda too is tossing and turning and muttering in her sleep.
"Darkness...darkness...the rumble of hoofs...ground shakes, trembles...Ancient evil...weapons of war...Father? Father! Father, no!" she howls.
"Wanda! Wake up!" Tabby yells, shaking Wanda, herself woken up by her friend's obvious distress.
Amara is there too trying to help. "Come on, Wanda. It's ok. Wake up."
Wanda jerks upright, her eyes snapping open, tears rolling down her cheeks, breathing heavily. Her eyes search around her until they focus in on Tabby's concerned look. "Tabs?" she asks at a whisper.
"Hey there," Tabby says with a watery smile.
Wanda hiccups. "What...what is happening?"
"You were having a dream," Amara answers.
Wanda wipes the tears from her eyes. "No...I...it was a vision...I think."
"Vision?" Tabby queries.
"You have the gift," Amara understands, coming from a culture where people like that are...not common, but accepted as real and honoured for such a gift from the Gods.
"I..." Wanda stiffens. "I saw him die."
"Who?"
"My father. Consumed by the darkness. I...I...don't want him to die," she confesses. "I hate him. I do...but I don't want him to die," she says this in such a way as if saying this is a revelation to herself.
Tabby brushes Wanda's hair back. "Of course not. That's what makes you better than him, isn't it?"
Wanda manages a small smile. "That sounds like something Clark would say to me."
"Well he does comes in the all in one smart and hunky package," Tabby has to make it saucy. "But am I wrong? I mean I hate my old man too but don't want him to die. Just pretend he doesn't exist."
"I guess," Wanda says, unsure of herself, unsure if she really is feeling what she thinks she is feeling.
"Do you remember anything else?" Amara asks. "You were muttering there for quite awhile."
Wanda's brow furrows as she tries to grasp the rapidly fading dream. "No. I...there were horses. 4 horsemen...but I've seen them before in another vision."
"4? As in the 4 horsemen?" Tabby asks, slightly concerned. She knows enough bible to get the reference. "Can't be. Right? That would mean..."
"Apocalypse is returning," Amara suddenly states it.
The other 2 girls look at her.
"He's a God in my religion. The God of Destruction and Death and Endings," Amara explains. "The 4 Horsemen are his servants and if you're seeing them it has to mean he is returning," she figures.
"So I foresaw the return of the God of the End of the World? That what you saying?" Wanda asks, unable to believe even she is hearing this.
Amara shrugs. "You tell me. You're the only being tutelaged by the Sorcerer Supreme."
"It's not like I have met any Gods, Amara," Wanda makes the point. "Demons sure. Other dimensional dark beings...got kidnapped once but not Gods," she elaborates on a couple of type of beings she has met since her magical power awoke.
Tabby looks twice at Wanda. "Demons?" she asks, her voice pitched high.
"Extra-dimensional entities if it makes you feel better," Wanda uses another term, with too much ease if anything, showing how quickly your world can change and how you must accept what seemed impossible or ludicrous before. "And Satana...you remember her?" she asks Tabby.
Tabby nods.
"Half-demon succubus," Wanda gives what Satana actually is. "So before going into denial take into account you've met a half-breed," she informs her, giving an example to illustrate to Tabby the truth.
Tabby's mouth opens and closes a few times but she's got nothing. Witches...yeah, met them but demons? Her mind is officially blown.
"What do you think your vision means?" Amara asks Wanda, getting back to that.
"I don't know," Wanda says with a shake of her head, trying to hold on to the memory but failing. "Spiders," she suddenly says in a far off tone.
"What?"
Wanda blinks. "I...I'm not sure. Just got a feeling it has something to do with spiders. Goddess, I probably sound crazy right?" This was the one part of her mystical abilities that most freaked Wanda out. Seeing the future, having weird feelings about things that make no sense even to her.
"I know from the Oracle back home that the future doesn't always reveal itself clearly so no, you don't sound crazy," Amara assures Wanda.
Wanda manages a grateful smile at Amara's words of comfort. Her face then puzzles up as she looks around the room. It looks different...structurally. The shape, size and dimensions have changed. "What happened to the room?"
"You did," Tabby gives the honest answer.
"Oh," Wanda says as she realises what must have happened. She must have cast something in her sleep. "Whoops," she says sheepishly.
In the light of the next day what they find about what Wanda has done is that from the outside the room looks as it always did and her alterations have affected nothing of the rooms either side or of the building itself. It's only when you get inside the room has changed. Like she saw last night. It's bigger and had a lot of weird angles now.
After a quick astral séance with Dr Strange it seems Wanda has shoved the interior of the room into one of the other 9 spacial dimensions beyond the 3 most people are aware of and can perceive.
She did say 'Whoops!'.
Since there was nothing inherently dangerous about what she had done there was no rush to try and undo it though Dr Strange promised to come and fix it next time he was free to do so.
So this was just your typical day at the Xavier Institute.
When did stuff like this stop being weird?
Probably the day they took in the alien from another galaxy.
The alterations to the room weren't what was really weighing heavily on the mind of Charles Xavier this morning.
What was was the cause of Wanda's episode. Her vision.
And the fact Marie had had a similar one as well at the exact same time it seemed from what he had been able to ascertain.
Charles is discussing it over privately with Hank in his study.
"This relates to this dark unseen force doesn't it?" Hank makes the educated guess. Marie had spoken before of her vision being blocked and Blindfold too had made mention of it during her short stay.
Charles nods. "It would seem likely," he concedes...but what that force was had been beyond any of their abilities to discover.
Hank knew it troubled Charles. It troubled them all. Anything with the power to block the precognitive ability had to indeed be a mighty force. And the way Marie had fearfully spoken of it consuming them all and them being unable to stop it...it was concerning.
They had tried their best to figure out what or who was the cause but they had just had so many other distractions as of late.
Lionel Luthor...whose death Colonel Fury informed them of last week. That had sent Clark off spinning into another one of his guilt trips due to the fact Clark was the one who ruptured the power cell which Fury informed them was the cause of death. The radiation spilling from it exposing Lionel to a fatal dose. It's just Clark's nature to value all life...even people you could argue don't really deserve it.
Truthfully Hank wasn't as sorry as he should have been. He mourned for the passing of a human being but wasn't particularly cut up about it. In the end Hank likes to believe we get what we deserve and Lionel's litany of crimes is a long one so perhaps he did get what he deserved. Hank is sure Lionel got as much comfort in his passing as was medically possible...which is more than Lionel offered the victims of his greed and lust for power.
Course Hank knew what thing out of recent events was truly troubling Charles the most. Last week they had made a...disturbing discovery about the meteor mutants. Which would include Lilandra.
It started when Charles and Hank had travelled to Smallville with a small group of students to continue the efforts of rebuilding the community after Lionel's devastation.
While they were there a baby boy was discovered. A baby they later found out was the offspring of two meteor mutants.
As far as anyone could tell this was a first. A 2nd generation meteor mutant. Well at least it was the 1st anyone could definitely say was the case. It is possible, probable in all likelihood, that there are others out there.
It shouldn't have been that much of a surprise in truth. The altered gene could obviously be passed on to offspring like every other gene a human being carries. Once the gene is changed, it's changed permanently. Hank had wondered about the effect of passing it on. Would it continue indefinitely or would it weaken every generation, the kryptonite concentration diminishing until it effectively vanishes, meaning the meteor mutants subsection class is doomed to inevitable extinction.
Hank got an answer in a way he didn't want.
The parents of the baby boy died in a car crash so they ended up looking after the baby at the mutant community. What happened next was the result of the new mutation the kryptonite altered gene produced. The baby began ageing at an accelerated rate in bursts. He would jump in age from baby to infant to teenager to adult to middle-aged to old age and then to death. Every burst of accelerated growth was accompanied by an explosive release of built up energy. Every burst got more powerful than the last meaning by the end the last burst would cause enormous damage.
While trying to find a way to stop it they were directed via Chloe to Andrea to one of her sources inside Lexcorp. One of Lex's scientists; Dr Lia Teng, a molecular biologist.
Dr Teng had been trying to get her way out from under Lex's thumb for awhile but it was difficult considering she was a North Korean defector and Lex kept threatening to send her back home where she would almost certainly be killed.
Luckily Andrea has Nightwing to call on for protection so Dr Teng had become a source on the exchange that when the time came for her to leave Lex Nightwing would protect her from Lex's wrath.
That time came quicker than anyone thought. In exchange for Dr Teng's help in this case Charles agreed to use his resources to have her hidden away where Lex wouldn't find her. On one condition. That they can call on her expertise from time to time.
Both sides made the agreement and right now Dr Teng was hidden safely away under a new identity.
Hank had to, reluctantly, admit, from their time working together, she was rather brilliant...if a little unethical and amoral. It was a compromise they had to make in this case because of the severe time restraints they were under.
The point is, as it turned out, she had been doing research for Lex into the meteor mutations for quite some time, which wasn't that big a revelation considering Lex's increasingly dark turn lately. Like father, like son it seemed. While Hank, himself, had made many of the same discoveries as Dr Teng she was ahead of him. During the process of trying to save the rapidly ageing child she revealed something he didn't know.
The meteor mutants were dying...or at least most of them at varying speeds.
It came out when studying the child in an attempt to arrest the rapid ageing and Hank noticed an acute cellular degradation, made worse by the rapid ageing process and Dr Teng revealed her knowledge of the condition. That it was almost like a disease affecting the vast majority of the meteor mutants.
The sad fact is Hank should have seen it himself.
The degradation is caused by the fact the mutation the meteors cause is unnatural. They were not suppose to be mutants. They were suppose to be human. It's like rejection. Their bodies are rejecting the mutation...but since it is on the genetic level it is in every cell of their bodes so every cell is being rejected and is degrading as a result.
Dr Teng's research showed it followed a normal probability curve. 10% of those affected would have stable mutations and live however long they are suppose to. The 10% after that would still live to a fairly old age only it would be the 'disease' that would kill them. Essentially you could argue they would live a full life with them only being very ill at the end. After that every 10% has a shorter and shorter life before the degradation would kill them. The last 10%...the mutation kills them almost instantly.
Hank has never seen an example of it but apparently Dr Teng has. In her more honest moments she also described the final fate of the clone of Emily Dinsmore, that Clark and Rogue encountered last year. She died of this very thing shortly after that incident.
And the child they were trying to save...he died too. They failed to save him. They couldn't stop the ageing before he became an old man and expired. It was very sad.
Afterwards they were faced with the dilemma of the fact that 80-90% of the meteor mutants will die before they reach an old age...unless they can find a way to stabilise the mutation...which is difficult when it's caused by a substance, kryptonite, that they don't fully understand.
And that brings Hank to why Charles looks so burdened. He's worried about the woman he cares deeply for. He's also worried for Volcana inevitably. He's worried for all of the people affected by this. It's Charles' nature to be so.
Speaking of Claire Hank looked for any sign of cellular degradation upon his return from Smallville. He checked and double checked and couldn't find any. It's possible she's one of the stable 10%...or it has simply not begun yet but will when she gets a bit older. There was no way to know at the moment. Hank would need to find a way, a test, to determine who will get sick and who won't.
It is a burden and a worry when you remember that they think, at most, there might be 300 meteor mutants, not including the ones Magneto is making, then only at most 30 people will have the stable mutations. The rest, over 200, are facing a premature death.
Some of them soon because Hank took some samples from Lilandra's community and found a few where the cellular degradation is already quite far along.
Not Lilandra herself. Like Claire there was no sign yet. Though there was something odd about Lilandra's cell structure in general. It seemed to be beyond what a normal mutation would do but Hank hadn't been able to dig deeper. Lilandra had refused permission for anything further than looking for a sign of the disease. That too was odd but Hank had to respect her wishes.
Then there's the x-gene mutants enhanced by kryptonite, like Rogue. Hank didn't have a clue what this new discovery meant for them. He had so much work to do.
So yeah it's understandable they have a few things on their mind this morning...but hopefully today they could forget it for a few hours. It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday once more. They had arranged to let the students relax with a friendly game of baseball. Hank would be the chief umpire.
There is a knock on the door and Storm enters, her mood actually quite good since Evan, as he promised, had shown up this last week for a check-up and to keep links between the X-Men and Morlocks open. His bone growth had finally halted but had left his torso covered in bone armour as well as a bone cap over his head and bone wrist guards essentially on his lower arms.
It wasn't a perfect situation but Storm had already braced herself for what he might look like now. At least he was here and she had spent time with him, albeit all too brief before he had to return to the Morlocks.
Charles and Hank look up at her.
"It's time," she announces. "They're here."
Charles kicks himself out of his mood. He'll have time to brood on this later. He and Hank follow her to the front door. They step outside as a white mini-bus parks up in front of the mansion.
The door to the bus opens and one by one step out the Hellions, dressed in baseball like uniforms...even Emma herself is wearing a stylish version of one(all white of course) as she steps off the bus last. She tosses a baseball in the air a few times and catches it. "So who's up for a little game?" she asks, a wide smile on her lips.
Author's Note: Wow I included a lot here. Yeah so Lionel's gone. Didn't want to make a big thing of it. I mean it's this or a small scene showing him die. Not much of a difference really. I suppose the only thing would have been did he have any last words and if need be that can always be showed in a flashback if I have an idea that he said something relevant. The rapidly ageing child is indeed the Smallville episode Ageless(considered one of the worst episodes the show ever made) but it allowed me to bring back something I made mention way back in my 1st story, when we met the mentioned clone of Emily Dinsmore and that was the possible death of the vast majority of the meteor mutants...and it plays into later when Apocalypse's plans reach their fruition. You may also note I made some references to Lilandra having an odd cell structure and her reluctance to allow Beast to examine it deeper...it leaves just enough wriggle room for me to leave it open for her to be slightly more than I have made her appear so far. And oh what changes have I made here to this episode? The Hellions, a 'friendly' game of baseball, let the fun begin! Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Under Lock and Key part 2(Take me out to the ballgame!).