Chapter 34: Mind Games
References to Dragon X this chapter, keep an eye out.
It was a couple weeks after the whole Joyride fiasco and all of the New Mutants had spent that time doing busywork. Tedious tasks such as washing the X-Van, Jet, and both Scott and Gavin's cars. And any allowance they had earned was spent on the repairs. Additionally they also had round the clock training sessions with Chelsea and Logan. Especially Kai, who had her probation monitored by Bast and Chelsea personally. They had exactly four weeks of this: one for each vehicle damaged.
Right now though, Chelsea was in the middle of having coffee with the rest of the teachers. "I really am serious, Ororo, you shouldn't have had to go through that last month. No one should." The blonde said, referring to how the Hungan used her like a remote control car.
"You say that like you have experience with it." Xavier noted.
"I do, actually. Back when I was a test subject in Hydra, one of the prime subjects was a kid who could relay thoughts from one person to another. Think like a transmitter for cell phones."
The telepath and other instructors nodded. Especially Logan, recognizing who she was talking about. " He could do it to anybody, consent or not. He could make you relive the most horrid things he had absorbed over his years there, or drain your own experiences. The doctors brainwashed him at an early age, or long ago or something because he was their devoted probing drone."
"Do I want to know how bad he was?" Beast asked from his chair. Chelsea sighed before she answered.
"He was the definition of a sadist. He showed absolutely no mercy in what he did, and we all knew it." The blonde explained. "He was used a lot on me for punishment. We'd sit in a room, with me strapped to a chair, and he'd just stare at me, relaying these thoughts to me. I was always in trouble and so those sick bastards there thought that enforcing these experiences and memories of others on us was a good way to break prisoners. It was a smart idea." She then sighed. "Thanks to Frost's treatments I can barely remember them. But the outline is still there."
"The kid's name was Kuo, in case you were wondering." Everyone then turned to Bast, who had spoken. "I hated him the most."
"Then he's at the top of my kill list." Another voice added.
Everyone turned and saw Gavin reading a car magazine casually. He turned the page before he spoke again. "If that little shit's as bad as you think, then I'll be sure to break him as badly as I can." He told Chelsea and Bast.
"And how would you do that?" The dragoness asked.
"Simple, let him see the insane asylum that is my wonderful brain." He smirked, tapping his forehead. "Then watch him go insane instead."
"You shouldn't joke like that, Gavin." Ororo said sternly.
"Whoever said I was joking?" The boy asked as he closed his magazine and left the room, leaving everyone in a state of confusion.
Though they didn't have time to dwell on it when Storm's phone rang. "Hello?" She said, then her eyes widened as the voice she heard registered. "T'Challa? What-how-Why are you calling me?"
"Who's T'Challa?" Chelsea whispered to Logan.l
"Someone important." Said man replied.
Storm continued to listen to the man. "Yes, I'm fine. That's why you called? To make sure I was alright? Well, that's very sweet of you, how's Zuri? Did she? Oh that's wonderful news, and what of your father, is he well? Good, good." She was quiet for a minute before speaking again. "I'm flattered T'Challa, I truly am, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to consider 'that' just yet. I have my work at the Institute and Evan to look after. Yes, I'll think about it. Alright, give your family my best wishes. Good bye." She then hung up and was met with everyone's curious gazes.
"What was that all about?" Bast asked for everyone else.
"It was… My Ex-Fiancé, T'Challa, crowned prince of Wakanda." She told the Gazan catwoman. "He was calling to check on me after hearing news of what happened to me from one of his spies."
"Hang on… Wakanda. The only person I know of who's the crowned prince there, is the current Black Panther. You know him?" Logan asked.
"It's a long story for another time." The weather witch deflected.
Everyone decided to leave the subject hanging for the time being, and just continued to discuss other things.
(The next day)
Devin walked inside the Institute after going to the circus with the others, and was holding a jack in the box in his hands. He had originally wanted to win it for Roxy, but she said she didn't want it. He looked at the box in aggravation.
"What am I supposed to do with this thing now?" He asked himself in slight frustration. Going up to his room, he just set it on his desk and went on with his day. But that night, he suddenly started having a very odd and disturbing dream.
(Devin's Dream)
Devin was in the rain in a dense forest he recognized immediately as the Suicide Forest in Japan, hung corpses and nooses lay and hung everywhere and with every step he took he was filled with an ever growing feeling of fear and dread.
He had always hated this place, in fact it was where one of his and Gavin's old friends took her like after she had an abortion she didn't want to do out of guilt.
He soon passed an old tree and when he did, he saw a girl who was crying, she had her back to him so he couldn't see her face.
"Hey, what's wrong-AAAAGGHHH!" He screamed the last part when she faced him, because what he saw on her face terrified him. She didn't have a face.
The metal mutant quickly ran away, he knew only one Yokai from Japanese mythology could do that: the Jorogumo - a spider woman. That particular monster terrified Devin, particularly because he had a crippling fear of spiders, and arachnids in general.
He kept running through the forest, trying to escape, constantly seeing the same faceless women try and reach out to him as he went deeper and deeper and the forest becoming progressively more and more with spider webs.
And then he reached the biggest tree at the center of the forest, trapped. The women and hundreds of spiders crawled towards him, and then he saw the Jorogumo. It towered over him, having the body of a spider at its lower half and the body of a beautiful woman at the top, but it soon shifted its face to that of a spider before it lunged at him, causing him to scream.
(Back in the real world)
Devin shot up with a scream, his eyes wide in fright. As he tried to calm his racing heart, the jack-in-the-box suddenly began playing its music on its own.
The boy reached over for it and looked at it as it stopped playing. Was it broken? His unspoken question was soon answered when the jack in the box popped open and revealed the figure inside, causing him to let out a startled yell.
(The next day)
Everyone was currently looking around for Devin, who had gone missing last night. There were no traces of him anywhere, not even a note. Naturally, Gavin was pretty worried.
"Devin? Hey where are you?" He called as he walked around the Institute.
"Cars are still in the garage." Kitty said as Lance and Rogue went to check up with her.
"Okay, now I'm really worried." Roxy stated nervously.
"How do you think Gavin feels?" Lance asked rhetorically before he frowned. "This is starting to get weird. How does someone like Devin just up and vanish?" He wondered.
Both Roxy and Gavin went to check his brother's room with Xavier, the telepath's attention immediately focusing on the odd jack in the box on the boy's desk.
"What do you think this jack in the box plays into this?" He asked them.
"Not sure. He won for me at the carnival last week, but I didn't want it." Roxy replied with a frown.
"Yeah, I can't really think of it having any significance either." Gavin said, shaking his head.
"Then it would seem that some time during the night, Devin simply vanished." Xavier said thoughtfully.
"How did this happen, though? That's the question I want answered." The worried pseudo vampire stated with a frown.
Meanwhile, everyone was looking around town. Kurt was teleporting around the school. Rogue was checking the local music stores, and Gavin was driving around calling people.
"Hey Risty, you seen Devin anywhere?" He asked her over the phone.
"No. Why? What's up?" She asked.
"He's missing." He told her.
"What? How? Why?" The British girl questioned in surprise.
"I don't know." The boy replied.
Meanwhile, Kitty and Lance were trying to ask the Brotherhood had seen him, though this was met by Blob and Pietro showing them the front door.
"Well excuse us for asking! Assholes." Lance lamented as they left.
"No kidding." Kitty Agreed.
Elsewhere, Chelsea and Logan were checking the airport, the scraggly mutant showing the teller a picture of the Japanese boy.
"Hmmm, yeah. He was here at four in the morning. He purchased a ticket to Boston." He said after a moment.
"What for?" Chelsea asked him.
"He didn't say." The man shrugged.
After this was discovered, Xavier picked up Devin's signature in Boston, he was using his powers.
"It's confirmed, he's in Boston." The man told Gavin and Roxy.
"What could he possibly be doing out there?" Gavin wondered.
"Is he using his powers?" Roxy asked.
"Most decidedly." Xavier nodded.
(Elsewhere)
Down in the hallway to the danger room, the New Mutants we headed to the training room, presumably for a scheduled class for that day.
"Are you sure we should be down here? Because I think we should be looking for Devin with the others." Jubilee stated.
"Hey, last I heard, we were supposed to be having class. That's all I know." Ray shrugged.
"Yeah, I mean if Gavin can do it, so can we." Amara noted.
"Hey guys wait up-Oof!" Jamie said as he came running down the hall before he slipped and fell, creating several clones. Kai walked up behind him and helped him up, which made him blush in embarrassment.
"Th-thanks." He stuttered slightly. They then walked up to the rest of the group. "No one told us we were having a session down here." The younger of the group said.
"Sorry, Multiple, Namaka, but this is way above your level." Ray told them.
"What are you talking about? I had to fight to survive most of my life." Kai snapped.
"Sorry guys, we're just more experienced at this than you." Jubilee said as they closed the door in their faces.
Kai puffed out her cheeks in anger and then Jamie got a wicked look on his face. "Wanna sabotage them?" He asked. Kai grinned evilly in response.
"It's like you read my mind." She responded with an evil voice. The two then headed for the control room to exact their revenge.
(Elsewhere)
Devin was standing outside of a museum in Boston in his costume, which he had added an X-Men logo to the back of its jacket and turned into liquid metal to slip under the gate and for door undetected before slipping into an unmonitored air vent and then sliding down the wall to a display case that had a ring inside.
Turning the molecular structure of his body translucent he made sure the cameras couldn't see him before he turned his arm liquid before sliding it into the display case from the bottom and absorbing the ring into it before retracting and escaping the way he came in, not tripping the alarms.
The next day, he arrived back at the Institute at night and easily got in since he was an authorized user. Entering the school, he walked down the halls, only to stop when he was met with the barrels of Gavin's two guns.
"I don't know where you've been or what you've been doing, so spill it." He ordered his brother.
His brother just wordlessly looked at him before he turned his hand into a sledgehammer and slammed it into the side of the pseudo vampire's head faster than he could react. With that, it was lights out.
The T-1000 reference incarnate then went to Kurt's room and then the hypnosis affected him. After this, the two took the X-Jet and flew away.
The next morning, Beast was looking up the ring Devin had taken, and had apparently found a lead on where the second one was.
"So wait, it's in the New York City township bank?" Gavin asked.
"Yes, and the safety deposit box in the vault it's in belongs to David Xanatos. If that ring gets stolen, it will no doubt draw his attention." Beast replied, getting Gavin's attention.
"Wait, the David Xanatos? You're kidding, right?" He questioned in surprise.
"Is he famous?" Chelsea asked, Roxy nodding in agreement, having no idea what made this guy so famous.
"Yeah, he is. In fact, in a recent issue of People magazine reported that his wife, the former TV star Fox, is gonna have a baby soon." The boy nodded. "He's also been suspected to be a member of the Illuminati."
"... Why?" Roxy couldn't help but ask.
"Trust me, if I knew, I'd tell you." Gavin said before he turned to Xavier. "But that's not what bothers me. What bothers me is that he has his own army of robotic Gargoyles that are programmed to protect his assets, should they be threatened."
"If those things find and see Devin and Kurt, or worse, capture them-" Ororo noted in worry.
"You don't need to finish." Xavier cut her off.
"We need to get to New York, pronto." The pseudo vampire said as he quickly turned into his first costume, which was finally repaired. Red coat and floppy fedora flopping in the breeze of the ACs as he walked.
(Elsewhere)
-Xanatos Tower-
Xanatos had just finished looking over the information that Mystique had given him on mutants and the diagnostics he ran on Damian in immense intrigue.
'These mutants, they seem to be as old as humanity if not older, and this X-gene is especially interesting as well… I wonder if my son will develop one when he is born?' The man wondered as Owen, his assistant, entered the room. "Ah, Owen, how goes everything?"
"Not good, unfortunately, Mr. Xanatos." The man explained. "I just received word that your safe deposit box at the township bank is currently being raided."
The famous man looked at his assistant with wide eyes. "What? Who is behind it?" He questioned.
"It's unclear, they seem to have either evaded or disabled the security systems, or both." Owen explained. "I also received word that detective Alisa Maza will be arriving at the bank any minute now."
The entrepreneur pursed his lips in slight irritation. First he had unknown assailants raiding his safe deposit box, and now he had an ally of his enemies getting involved in his business. This was rather irksome.
"Prepare my suit and the Steel Clan." Xanatos said as he got up. "I will handle this matter, personally."
(Elsewhere)
-New York City Township Bank-
The X-Men were now in a standoff with Devin and Kurt and none other than Detective Alisa Maza, who had just arrived on the scene. Currently, Gavin was standing between the two hypnotized mutants and the others with his sword pointed at Alisa (which was floating in mid air), and his guns at both Kurt and Devin to make sure they didn't try anything.
"Alright, who or what exactly are you people?!" Alisa snapped, her gun pointed at the X-men, which made Gavin make his sword inch closer towards her as he hissed at her, showing his fangs.
"Shut it, we're kinda in the middle of snapping our friends out of some wack job's hypnosis." He hissed.
"And you expect me to just believe that?" The policewoman asked with narrowed eyes.
Kurt was about to teleport him and Devin away when Gavin activated his guns, causing him to freeze. "Kurt, I swear to god if you move another muscle I will shoot the hypnosis out of you. And I don't have these things on stun either." The pseudo vampire warned.
Xavier then rolled up to Alisa. "If I may, detective, I could give you the answers you're looking for." As the woman turned to him, the telepath immediately started to cause her to forget the stand off and go back to her car with no recollection of the incident.
Though this seemed to distract everyone long enough for both of their targets to disappear again.
"Damn it!" Gavin yelled in anger as the two got away.
The next day was spent trying to find the third ring, which was in Washington DC. They also found out that the person who was hypnotizing the others was a mutant named Mesmero. However, before anything could be done about it, while everyone was sleeping, Devin had somehow gotten control of both Kitty and Evan, and had left on the X-Jet to DC.
"Okay, this is getting on my nerves." The horror aficionado grumbled irritably.
"Agreed." Ororo nodded, feeling personally offended that Mesmero had the gall to rope her nephew into this. She was going to end this personally.
"Same." Lance nodded, who was in a similar boat as the other two.
(Elsewhere)
The four hypnotized mutants were able to get the last of the three rings without a hitch thanks to Devin knocking out the guards well enough to where they wouldn't remember anything, Kitty disabling the security systems, Evan sealing up any entries and lastly Kurt teleporting them to the room of the target and out once Devin stole the ring.
But now, just as they were about to give the rings to Mesmero, they hit two snags: Xanatos and his Steel Clan, and the X-men.
"Well ain't this just perfect!" Avalanche groaned before he sent out a quake at the mechanized Gargoyles..
"You got that right!" Gavin snapped as he sliced a metal gargoyle in half before he was attacked by Xanatos himself.
"Alright, I'm only going to ask this once: who are you, and what do you think you're doing with my property?" The man said through his suit.
"We're the X-men, and we don't want your property, a mutant named Mesmero does." Gavin growled as he delivered an uppercut to the man's metal jaw. Xanatos grunted and staggered back before righting himself.
"If that's the case, then what could he possibly want with my ring?" He questioned as he charged at the sword wielding boy in front of him.
"Apparently it's part of a set of three, and I have no idea what they're for. But if watching so many Indiana Jones movies has taught me anything, it can't be good." Gavin grunted as he grabbed Xanatos's incoming arm and used his momentum to flip him over his shoulder.
Meanwhile, Evan was fighting both Ororo and Rogue, and the former was trying to get the boy to listen to her.
"Evan, snap out of it! Can't you see you're being controlled by someone?!" She called out, trying to reach her nephew while she dodged his attacks.
Evan didn't seem to be listening, as he was still attacking them with very little remorse hinted in his gaze.
Next was Wolverine and Avalanche, who were fighting Kitty. Logan unfortunately couldn't bring himself to lay a hand on her, which earned him a swift kick in the shin by the intangible girl. And when Lance tried to grab her she went through him, but he still was able to tackle her when her back was turned.
"Kitty, come on! Snap out of it already! I hate seeing you like this!" He said as he attempted to reach her… Only for the girl to simply phase out of his arms. Lance had a blank look on his face before he facepalmed. "I should've seen that coming." He groaned.
"Yeah, you should've." Wolverine agreed from his crate as he cradled his sore shin.
Kurt was being wrestled by Beast, but he was having trouble due to the smaller fuzzball's constant teleporting.
Lastly was Devin, and he was the hardest to beat out of them. He had already destroyed all of the Steel Clan and now had Chelsea, Jean, Scott, Roxy and Xanatos (who had decided to join forces with them given it was the most logical course of action) on the ropes, clearly showing just how powerful his fully enhanced Omega Level X-gene was.
Right now he had just slammed his fist, which was in the shape of giant mace, into the side of Chelsea's dragon form skull, causing her to crash to the ground after being sent tumbling a couple feet.
"We need some kind of strategy, here!" Jean said as they regrouped.
"I have one." Xanatos said as he shot two shock discs at Devin's feet, which due to him being both metal and covered in water, made him a very powerful conductor. The boy screamed in pain as the electricity shocked him. When it was over, he fell to the ground, unconscious. Roxy ran over to him and immediately took him into her arms, obviously worried.
The bag of rings dropped to the ground in front of the tent where Mesmero was, Jean tried to bring it to her telekinetically, but Mesmero caught it before it could reach her.
Xanatos immediately pointed his arm cannon at the hypnosis mutant. "Alright 'Mesmero', this can go two ways, either you give me those rings voluntarily, or not. Your choice."
His target glared at him before speaking. "You have no idea what you're getting involved in, do you?" He asked. He didn't wait for an answer since he immediately turned and went into the tent. Acting fast, Jean used her powers to rip off the whole tarp… And Mesmero was gone! As soon as he was gone, everyone that was hypnotised slowly returned to normal.
Xavier clutched his head as he felt a wave of residual psychic energy hit him, Roxy oddly enough felt the same wave, though not as much. "Mesmero… He was just another puppet. There's someone else pulling the strings." He thought aloud.
The millionaire turned to him as he removed his helmet. "How do you mean, Xavier?" He asked.
"I'm not sure, but whoever it is has a mind far stronger than any I have ever encountered." He replied with uncertainty.
"Well ain't this just a fuck fest." Chelsea groaned as Gavin helped her up. "I think Devin just gave me a mild concussion."
"We'll get you looked at when we get back to the Institute, scales." Logan told his girlfriend.
Xanatos then turned back to Xavier and then extended his hand. "Well, it seems that you and I have been wrapped up in something rather big. I'd say it'd be worth it for both of us to work together on this."
"So it would seem, Mr. Xanatos. Though I'm curious, how do you know so much about mutants?" Xavier questioned.
"A colleague of my wife, Fox, is a mutant. If I remember correctly she has the ability to shapeshift." The man replied. The description caused the X-Men to stiffen. Ororo was the first to speak.
"Mr. Xanatos, that description belongs to one of our enemies. Mystique." She explained.
"Yeah, and she's done a severe wrong by me in my book." Gavin added, showing a large amount of disdain for said woman.
"How so? As far as I can tell she's just a single mother." The millionaire stated.
"She's my mozer, and trust me, she's got a rep of sleeping around." Kurt piped up.
"Yeah, and one of those unlucky saps happened to be me!" Gavin added with a hiss.
Xanatos looked at him in shock. "No… She didn't…" He breathed.
"She did. And she drugged me to make it happen, too." Gavin confirmed.
"Mystique had a baby with her when she came to me, does this mean that it's yours?" Xanatos asked, his hands shaking slightly from his anger at what Mystique had done.
"Yeah, that baby is my son, Damian Qrow Shirakumo. And I'm determined to get him home." Gavin nodded firmly.
(Elsewhere)
-Tibet, Unknown Cave-
Mesmero walked into a cave and took a rod that was hidden in a stone pillar and slid the rings onto it before walking up to a giant stone slab with Tibetan and Egyptian symbols on it, he then stuck the rod in a keyhole and turned it, causing the pillar to open and reveal another with an Egyptian spider scarab beetle on it.
"I have done as commanded. I apologize for not being able to bring you the grey skinned girl as you had requested, but I will bring her to you at the earliest opportunity." Mesmero said to whoever was behind the gates. "I await your instructions on the other two keys."
After a moment, an unknown force sent the instructions into his mind, causing him to groan from the speed in which it was sent. When it was done, he stopped groaning and stood straight again.
"Understood. I will find your granddaughter and the two keys. And once again the world will tremble at the presence of... Apocalypse." The man said before bowing. He then left to fulfill his tasks.
Meanwhile at the Institute, Roxy suddenly sat up and deployed her stingers. She had just felt the energy that was released from the first gate, almost as if she were connected to them.
"First that weird feeling I had when Mesmero disappeared, now this? What is going on with me?" She whispered as she put her hand on her forehead. After calming herself, she laid back down and went back to sleep.
None of them had any idea just how close Apocalypse and Roxanne Styles were connected, not even her… At least for now.
Dragon Emperor0: And with that we are officially one chapter away from the Vampyr's Vendetta arc. And Xanatos has officially joined the Apocalypse prevention party.
ThermalsniperN7: And the plot is also thickening! *Dramatic spooky noises*
Dragon Emperor0: Yeah, I mean, who would have guessed that Roxy was a direct descendant of Apocalypse? Though I guess the grey skin was a dead giveaway.
ThermalsniperN7: It kinda was. Anyway, see you guys next chapter.