A/N: I wonder how many of us have that "rage monster" inside of us. That silent, simmering demon that just waits for an excuse to come out and slay our enemies.
Chapter Nine
Carly sat and waited for about three seconds before she was up and trying to figure out how to escape this room/jail. She'd just about had it with Xavier's hospitality. The door was solid, the windows barred, and the vents too small for a crawl. Her super-ish strength was useless in a room designed to contain creatures far more powerful. Minutes stretched on, no word from Kitty or anyone else. No one even answered the intercom even though she buzzed it like a million times. She'd hate to call in an exfiltration just because she was stuck in a dorm room.
"Bah." Carly eyed the bouquet she had terminated, wishing she could revive the stalks. Once she'd run her power through them, they were lifeless shells, no chance to restore them. She sat on the bed and stared at her hands for the billionth time. Forced isolation let her mind crawl with thoughts. What exactly was she? What was the true nature of her power? Xavier had helped reveal some things, that a monster lay inside of her, dormant. Waiting. Another Carly full of rage and destruction.
What if she couldn't control it?
What if she didn't want to?
That was the hardest thought of all: that she liked using the power. It made her glow with energy and a kind of thrill. It was a drug. Even now, she yearned to go out to a field and let the things around her grow into a forest until it was all burned, destroyed, a black mass of death. The more she used this power, the more she wanted to use it, and worse, the more of it she consumed, the more powerful she became.
So what would she become if she used too much?
Carly groaned and ran worried fingers through her hair. Where the heck was Kitty? Her stomach rumbled. Power or not, she still needed to eat. Buzz buzz buzz on the intercom and nothing.
She forced herself to stop thinking about her power, and her mind fell on the other subject that dominated her thoughts: Lance. After spending that long ride with him, all she wanted to do was to crawl up into his lap and have him wrap her in his arms. Yeah, she might be a super villain with unearthly powers, but she missed be close to people. She needed this. After Dad apparently died (except he didn't), Mom was all closed off. Now that her previous-best-friend Becky had turned against her, Carly had no one. Why did the world conspire to keep the things she wanted out of her grasp? Lance and her dad, both locked away from her. It wasn't fair.
She jumped off the bed and pounded on the door. "Hello? Can someone let me out of here? Come on!"
Nothing. Maybe now it was time for exfiltration. Let's see how these creepy mutants do against the full power of Hydra. Carly grabbed her phone. All she had to do was punch in some codes and the sky would fill with hover-gunships. No. She wasn't in mortal danger, not yet at least. Hydra would lose a lot rescuing her, and they'd be pretty pissed. No, she'd have to figure this one out herself.
Carly flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, chewing on her nails. A nervous worry grew, imagining they might be building a torture chamber for her so they could extract Hydra's secrets. Isolate her from any living material so she couldn't use her power, and they'd have her. She should have run, should never have come here, should have destroyed Xavier when she had a chance…
Nah, these didn't seem to want to go in that direction. More like they wanted to recruit her. That was their angle. They were just re-working their presentation since she had slept in so late—
A siren wailed, and some kind of red strobe flashed from above the door frame. Carly jumped up, keyed in a quick query on her phone. No immediate response.
Kitty jumped ghost-like through the solid door, pulling a shocked Lance through with her. "Stay here," she said to both of them. "You'll be safe." She jumped back through.
"Hey!" Carly pounded on the door then turned to Lance. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," said Lance, looking shaken. "Everyone's been running around like crazy the last few minutes, then they hit the alarm."
Carly kicked the door. "I need to get out of here. I need to find out what's going on." She checked her phone again. Still nothing. If it was an exfil, they would tell her, right? No, it was something else.
"Do you think we're in danger?"
"Duh. Listen, Lance. If something's got them all riled up, I need to escape. I need to know what's going on." Still nothing on the phone. No response to the intercom. Nothing. A terror stirred in her gut but she swallowed it. She wasn't a rage-monster like Lance. She could control it. Maybe.
Except Lance looked like he was crumbling, scared. Carly stepped to him, put her hand on his shoulder. "Look at me." Their eyes locked. "Everything will be okay." Suddenly he pulled her close in a hug. She put her head on his shoulder, felt him shiver. "What's going on? It's just an alarm."
"It's not that. It's—it's me. I don't want to go Bull again. I can feel it inside of me. I lose control, and I hurt people. And if I hurt someone here, they might lock me up. For good."
Carly reached up and kissed his lips. "You won't, I promise."
The room filled with the scream and roar of a jet passing close by outside. Lance's muscles tensed with fear. She held him tight, not sure if it was to comfort him or herself. "Ssh. We can make it through this." Maybe. He's not trained, he's not ready for this stuff.
A gargle struck Lance's throat. "It's coming. I need to stop it. Please, don't let me change."
"Okay." Carly held him as shouts filtered through the walls, but her own panic began to well up. The darkness waited, ready to be released. If something was happening, she shouldn't be caught in here.
Her phone buzzed with a message: Level 1-C Event. Investigate and Report.
Carly swallowed. '1-C' meant some lunatic with super powers was running amok, causing civilian casualties. No wonder the X-Men were scrambling like a disturbed hornet's nest. "Lance, I need to get out of here. I need your help. Please."
Lance shook his head. He must know what that means. "Don't ask me to do that."
"I don't have a choice. I'm needed out there. I won't let you hurt anyone, I promise."
Lance shook his head. "Find another way."
Carly slapped his face, hard. She hated doing it, but she needed Bull Boy's strength right now. They had to break out of this room. She had no other choice.
"Carly?! What are you doing?" Lance backed away, holding out his hands. "Stay away from me."
"We need to escape this room. They can't just lock us in here."
"No. Don't do this. I trusted you!"
Carly stepped toward him, hand ready to strike again. His eyes pleaded with hers.
"If you do this to me, I swear I will never see you again."
Carly stopped. She had to make a choice. Let her affections for Lance stay her hand, or fulfill her responsibility to Hydra. Let Lance down, or let her father down, the man who rotted in jail somewhere in the name of Hydra.
Yet if she struck Lance again, she'd be sealing the fate of their relationship. Lance was right, this is not something you can come back from.
"Please," he said in a near whisper.
Carly glanced out the window. She could just barely see the assembly area where the X-Men assembled in trucks and aircraft and other vehicles, ready to take on whatever threat the 1-C was.
The fist struck her square on the jaw, throwing her across the room, just like his father had struck her, the same power, the same pain piercing her skull. She glared back at Lance who held up his hands. The monster within her stirred, raged.
"Damn. I guess you don't knock out easy. I can see it in your face, Carly. I see what you're thinking. I will not become the Bull. You will not use me in your plans!"
Power surged inside Carly, relentless, unstoppable. She rose to her feet, raised a hand. "First of all, the name's Wild Flower. Second, you don't have a choice, not anymore. The moment you jumped in my car, you became an agent of Hydra, just like me. I can't stop being that any more than you can stop being the governor's son." Carly stepped to him. Lance backed away. "Now I brought you here to help you, but all that's happened is that I was probed, stabbed, imprisoned, and now beaten. And I've done nothing to deserve any of it. I brought you here to help you. Now you're going to help me." She raised a fist. "I want the Bull!"
"No!" Lance backed away, slamming into the door. His face contorted as he fought the change.
Carly breathed for a moment, swallowing her power. She couldn't do this to Lance. She was just going to have to call for an exfil. "Okay, okay!" She held out her hands. "We'll find another way. Lance? Lance? Please don't change, I'm sorry—"
Too late. Horns burst from his head. His shirt ripped open, his pants split. His hands and feet turned to hooves, his nose into a snout. The Bull snorted and stomped, eyes full of bestial rage. He stampeded around, ripping apart the room with his horns, Carly only escaping be impaled by mere inches, tumbling and springing away. The Bull grunted and bellowed, stared at her with a red, hate-filled gaze.
The Bull charged straight at her. This time, Carly was ready. She grabbed his head, pulling back on his neck, choking him as he slammed walls and shelves. "Listen to me," she shouted in his ear. "If you don't do what I say, I will kill you."
The Bull bucked and tossed his head, but Carly kept up the pressure on his neck and throat, cutting off the blood and air. Bull thrashed around the room, nearly dislodging Carly, but she held on tight.
"Calm down. Now." She yanked at full strength, pulling his head back.
The Bull struggled impotently, but then stopped, falling on his front knees.
Carly spoke in his ear. She had to get this situation under control. "Good. Now listen to me. I am Wild Flower. I am your master. If you understand and agree, shake your head." Hopefully Lance was still in there, somewhere.
Thankfully, the Bull nodded.
"I am about to release you. If you try to harm me again, I will destroy you. Do you understand?"
The Bull nodded again.
Carly carefully let him go and jumped off. The Bull scrambled away, head hung low, breathing heavy. His eyes no longer glared.
"Good." Carly stepped over the destruction of Kitty's room, laid a hand on his snout. He snorted, flapped his ears.
"What does master Wild Flower wish?" asked the Bull in a low guttural tone.
Good, he was still somewhat human under all the beef. Carly pointed to the door. "Bull, smash!"
Bull nodded and snorted, backed up, and then charged the door. He collided in an impact that rocked the room, but the door held. He stepped away dazed. Carly grabbed his head, feeding him her power, healing him, strengthening him. They had to escape. "Again!"
The Bull backed up once more, pawed the ground, and charged. This time the door moved half an inch from its moorings. Bull spun in a circle, and then collapsed on the floor, the poor thing. Carly laid a hand on him, feeling the pain and damage radiating from his body. She got up and tried the door, but it still held despite the damage, even after being hit with the equivalent of a Mack truck. "Curses." She felt the Bull's hide again. All they needed was one more strike, and that door was sure to fail. Carly fed him just a bit more power, just to get him up again, just make him a teensy bit stronger. Any more and he'd be in danger. "Come on, one more time!"
The Bull nodded, collected himself, and charged. This time the door flew across the hall. Carly jumped on the Bull's back. "Let's go, to the assembly area."
Bull charged down the hall, Carly riding him like a cowboy.