AN:
My beauties from Tumblr, as promised and voted for, here is the Andy Strucker x teleporting mutant fic I promised.
The first two chapters takes place between "boXed in" and "got your siX."
The main takeaway is that the Struckers have decided to stay and help the Underground, but haven't brought Andy along to a mission yet.
Please enjoy!
The Mutant Underground was uncomfortably aware that there was more heat was on mutants in Atlanta. In the past few weeks, they had gotten dozens upon dozens of refugees, mutants fleeing Sentinel Services. Part of the issue was the Struckers. Marcos sometimes felt the family was a curse upon them, but fate had intervened and Reed Strucker had been helpful in getting Lorna back from imprisonment even if Reed had been her prosecutor at first.
Sage was constantly monitoring police scanners and what she could hack into the government agency itself. Still, they could not be everywhere at once, and every local safehouse, shelters that allowed mutants, and mutant tent city was being raided.
Sentinel Services was being heavy handed with their arrests, many mutants were being arrested and disappearing. The Underground suspected much of it had to do with Trask Industries and whatever they were doing with mutants such as Pulse.
The Underground's goal had always been to get to mutants before Sentinel Services did, shelter them, then move them to Mexico or other safehouses across the country as quickly as they could. Their job was made infinitely harder the past few weeks.
Andy Strucker had done the most damage an emerging mutant had done since 7/15. Perhaps if his powers had manifested anywhere else besides a school, people wouldn't have been so horrified. But his powers had nearly destroyed an entire gymnasium, and parents were out for his blood thinking he was a terrorist intent on hurting their children.
Sentinel Services hadn't been able to apprehend him, and the entire Strucker family were on the run. The government wanted to make an example of them and to save face. It didn't help that their No. 1 Prosecutor was not only on the run but aiding and abetting the Mutant Underground.
It was all made worse when they rescued Reed and Lorna, embarrassing the government agency even further. Now it seemed that Sentinel Services was hellbent on bringing them all in at all costs, even at the expense of ignoring the Constitution and due process.
As safe as the bank was, it was always a risk to house so many mutants in one place. Most of them were just kids who had recently come into their powers and had very little control over them. Add in the stress of be hunted by the government, then the compound was just a bomb waiting to go off.
"We have a hit," Sage told the team as they gathered in their designated meeting area. They had to put aside their plans to go to Baton Rouge in order to try to help a targeted mutant. "It's a big one. They are going after one mutant, but with an arsenal for the size of a small army."
The group consisted of John, Marcos, Polaris, Clarice, Reed Strucker as he was consulted on Sentinel Service's operating procedures, and Dreamer.
"Why?" Blink wanted to know, it wasn't totally abnormal that Sentinel Services brought out the big guns, but it did seem overkill for just one mutant.
"From the dossier they have, they are calling her a danger to society. There is a standing order to take her alive, however. She's listed as being 14-17 and a possible runaway. They have very little on her actual identity."
Clarice wanted to scoff, highly doubting the girl was a runaway,
More like ran off.
It was something she was all too familiar with.
"Do we know why Trask Industries wants her?" John asked, he wondered if it'd be an opportunity to try get more information on his friend. The little that Dreamer was able to get out of Agent Turner, didn't tell them much. All they had was a government building in Baton Rouge and a logo that had also been tattooed on Pulse.
"They have listed 'Mutant Assets' as part of their arsenal," Sage confirmed, "So we can presume that Pulse will be there to nullify powers within a two-block radius. More if they give him Kick. That along with the capture order, it makes me think it's more of a recruitment exercise than arresting her for the safety of the public."
Not that any of them believed Sentinel Services actually cared about public safety.
"Do we know where they're targeting?" Reed inquired, thinking it was probably another shelter or safehouse.
"It's the Claremont."
That surprised the former prosecutor, as he had many networking events and working lunches at the luxury establishment.
"Does that mean something?" Blink asked, she wasn't familiar with Atlanta or its landmarks outside the airport, and no one could miss Reed's surprised face.
"It's one of the most expensive high rises in the city," Reed explained, which meant something in a metropolitan city. "The top floors are residential, the 'cheapest' one is just under $2 million."
"For a runaway, she has expensive taste," Blink couldn't help the sarcasm.
"She does indeed, she's been squatting in the penthouse for an estimated four weeks," Sage informed them.
"And they're just now noticing her?" Blink was duly impressed. She's squatted before, but never had the nerve to attempt high end condos. Her dwellings tended to be houses in foreclosure or condemned apartments.
"The chatter implies she's able to bypass locked doors and walls. The dossier doesn't explain her exact powers, but they suspect she can teleport or is making use of portals, like Blink. Either way, Trask Industries wants her alive at all costs."
Hearing of a mutant with powers like hers had caught Clarice's attention. She wondered if this mutant could be related to her, there was some science and studies behind mutant inheritance and the X gene, and certain powers tended to run in families. Having the exact same powers were rare, but they were usually similar.
Case in point, Magneto and Polaris. From her understanding, the only difference between their powers was that Polaris gave off a visible magnetic aura when she used her powers, while her father did not.
Andy and Lauren Strucker had some sort of energy manipulation powers between them. The sister could condense it to make sheilds, at least that's as best Blink could describe it, while Andy could separate energy, causing explosions.
Clarice wondered if the mutant they wanted to save had purple hair or bright green eyes.
"They're planning a raid tonight, their heightened surveillance has her clocked all around Atlanta during the day. Traffic cameras and other public and even private cameras have her in places she can't possibly be in the short amount of time between capturing her on camera. They've noted she's not seen much during the night. They presume that's when she's sleeping and at the penthouse. The Claremont has been cooperating with them, noting there has been a teen girl with the same description seen about the building, pretending to be a maid."
That would explain how she was getting all the way up to the penthouse. Clarice's own powers depended a lot on sight, it was starting to cause her to get excited that perhaps this mutant really did have similar powers to her own.
Word spread quickly that the main leaders for the Underground were going on a rescue mission. There was always the possibility that more would come, so everyone left behind was tasked with gathering supplies and trying their best to make room.
Andy wished he could do more than move boxes from one area of the compound to another, but his parents wouldn't even entertain the idea of either him or Lauren going on a rescue mission. Even though both of them had helped in rescuing their dad. Apparently, it was one thing to help rescue family, but other mutants were on their own.
He watched as John, Blink, Marcos, and Polaris got into a vehicle and drove off. He only hoped that not only did they make it back safely, but with another mutant in tow.
It was rare that any of them went into the nicest part of Atlanta. Most mutants were not welcome, especially not visible ones where humans could tell on sight.
Although it was late afternoon, almost evening, Clarice wore sunnies to cover her eyes. They would likely need quick work with her portals, and she wasn't able to create them if her vision was anyway impaired. She wore a baseball cap that hopefully hid her purple hair well enough in the dimming light.
Lorna also wore a cap to cover her green hair. With so much anti-mutant sentiment, especially in affluent areas, most did not dye their hair wild colours any longer, so green and magenta hair would stick out.
They parked several blocks away from the Claremont. Not only to hide their car that had seen better days and would be conspicuous, but it would be past Pulse's area of influence for his powers.
It was too early for the young professionals crowd to be out and about for dinner, so the street was mostly empty.
John crouched down to hopefully get a trail for the mutant. He homed in his senses and filtered through the white noise of everyday human life. He could hear a slight humming, almost like an electrical current, and that there were a few like it within several miles.
"She moves…strangely," John confirmed, which was what she said about Clarice when they were tracking her after her breaking out of prison. "I definitely think she can teleport or use portals."
"Yeah," Clarice agreed, taking off her sunglasses. "There's an odd energy…" she wasn't quite sure how to describe it, especially since she knew they couldn't see it, not the way she could see energy. John could hear it, but even with his keen eyesight, his powers didn't allow him to see or pull at the energy that allowed for her portals.
She walked towards one that happened to be a few feet in front of them. It wasn't like the energy she used to make portals, which was pink. It was ghostly white, almost ethereal. It wasn't a portal, at least not like one she could widen and manipulate with great concentration and her strength. It was more like a…rip, or a torn seam. An almost imperceivable slash of air and space, and possibly fading as it looked old to her, dim compared to her vibrant portals.
"Clarice?" Marcos asked gently, wondered what had her so entranced as it looked like she was staring intently at nothing.
Normally Clarice was very cautious, she trusted very few things and people, and half the time not even her own powers or senses. She always erred on the side of caution and tried to lay low and out of the way. In any other situation, she would never have dreamed of touching the rip, with no idea of what would happen and what it might do to her.
"Clarice?" Marcos asked a bit more forcefully as he heard sirens go off and John said that Sentinel Services was at the Claremont. They needed to get a move on in trying to save the mutant, and they had little to no plan on how to get into the penthouse, if she was even there.
Before they could try to shake her out of her concentration, she had touched something that none of the others could see, but in a literal blink of an eye, she was gone.
"Clarice!" John called out for her, horrified that she had just disappeared into thin air. He rushed to where she had just been, waving his hands over approximately where she had touched, but all he got was empty space and nothing.
"Shit, what do we do?" Marcos was equally as horrified, he hated to admit it but so many of their exit plans had revolved around Clarice's abilities. They were hoping that she'd be able to at least get them into the Claremont before Sentinel Services arrived, but the police force was already there.
"We can't help Clarice, we have no idea where she went. We know the mutant is at the Claremont," it was cold of Lorna, but it was true enough. It was rescue triage and they had no idea what happened to Blink. They could only try to save the mutant they came for.
They made their way to the Claremont,
"Do we still head to the parking garage?" Lorna asked as they power walked, running would look too suspicious.
"Yeah," John answered, trying his best not to lose his shit. It was just another sin against Clarice and the guilt ate away at his heart. He felt like he was abandoning her, but Lorna was right. There was so little time to do anything, and they had no idea where to start. None of them could sense energy the way Clarice could. He just hoped that whatever caused Blink to disappear had something to do with the mutant they were trying to save. "Sage said the top floor of the garage should give us a good view of the Claremont entrance and with my sight, I'll easily be able to see into the penthouse windows."
"What about Pulse?" Marcos pointed out, if they lost their powers then they lost their ability to see that high.
"Pulse's radius is two blocks, but we've only ever seen it work outwards, not upwards…at least nothing taller than light posts, it might be a Hail Mary, but I'm hoping that we'll be high enough that his powers won't reach us even if we're just across the street."
That was a lot of ifs, but they had done rescues on less.
Clarice had taken one step towards the energy and in a breath, she was suddenly in the nicest apartment she had ever seen, apart from HGTV shows.
It was all clean lines, open concept, and the cabinets were pure white. There was a breathtaking view of the city, with a sectional matching pure white couch and one of the biggest tv's she's ever seen on the wall.
The kitchen had two large islands, and it just screamed wealth to Clarice who had never lived anywhere where the kitchen could fit one island much less two.
In the middle of the plush sectional was a young teenage girl, who looked to be about 15, who was staring dumbly at her.
Blink didn't blame her as she had just appeared as if out of thin air. The teen had been reading a book and eating grapes from a bowl. She had been mid-snacking and still had her mouth open and the grape at her lips.
"Hi," which was the only thing Clarice could think of, she was still reeling a bit from her unexpected journey.
"Hola?" the girl replied as if she wasn't sure that was the right thing to say.
"Um, this is going to sound crazy, but do you happen to be a mutant?"
That caused the girl to flinch and then response,
"No hablo Ingles," and while Clarice thought the girl looked Mexican or some sort of Latin, her accent was off, and the Spanish didn't sound natural from her lips. "estoy sacando la basura…" and then proceeded to get up and do an awkward pantomime of cleaning.
Clarice frowned and tried,
"¿Eres una mutante? Los Servicios Sentinel están en camino, tenemos que salir de aquí."
The girl looked like she was caught in a lie,
"OK, fine, I don't speak Spanish. How did you get in here?"
"I'm a mutant," Clarice wanted to add in "obviously" but they didn't have time for her to be sarcastic. "Sentinel Services is on their way to arrest you; we need to get out of here."
The girl didn't look like she believed her, and Blink didn't blame her. A purple haired, elf eared, and acid green eyed mutant just pops out of nowhere?
"Ummm…lets start at the beginning, who are you?"
"I'm Clarice, I'm with the Mutant Underground…"
To Blink's surprise, mentioning the Mutant Underground got the teen defensive and started to back away.
"Wait," Clarice hoped to get through to the girl, they were in danger and wasting time.
But the teen didn't respond, instead she disappeared.
"What the fuck…" she cursed under her breath; they didn't have time for this.
Luckily, the mutant's power left a bright energy rip that she could see. The old one had brought her to the apartment, she just hoped that her theory was right, and she took the chance and walked through.
Blink was happy that she ended up in a posh bedroom, probably within the same penthouse, and not at the bottom of the ocean or something.
The teen was not expecting her as she had been stuffing a hiking backpack.
"Fuck!" she yelled and jumped back. "How are you following me?"
"I don't have time to explain my powers to you right now. Sentinel Services is…"
"Yeah, I get it. They're on their way, hence why I'm packing. I'm not going with you, obviously," the teen scoffed and continued to pack.
"Why wouldn't you come with me?"
"Ummm, I'm not going with a sex trafficker, ovbs," she rolled her eyes.
"Sex trafficking?! I'm not a sex trafficker," now Clarice was just offended.
"That's what a sex trafficker would say…Look, I've heard enough true crime podcasts to know they send the pretty, harmless looking ones to recruit vulnerable homeless girls, promising them safety and all that jazz. But I'm not going to fall for it. Thanks for the warning, even if SentServe wasn't coming after me, it's time I move on anyway."
She had continued to pack her bag as she was talking. Once she was finished, she lugged it onto her back and gave Clarice a wave goodbye.
She had moved to jump and she expected to be several blocks away at a park within a second, but to her horror, she was still there. She tried again, thinking maybe she was too rattled to have jumped correctly. It didn't work again, and she started to panic.
She then opened her hands as if she expected something to appear. When nothing happened, her heart jumped into her throat.
"Why aren't my powers working?" she looked to Clarice almost accusingly.
Instead of answering her, Clarice took her own hands to try to power up. Normally she'd feel the current of energy from her hands to rip open a portal, but nothing was happening.
"Shit, they're here. Sentinel Services is blocking our powers."
"Fuck…they can do that?" she knew they had collars that could nullify a mutant's powers, she didn't know they could do it remotely.
"It's a mutant," Clarice said as she ran to the window of the bedroom, they were high up but she could see several armored cars and several police vehicles line the streets. "Shit!" she hit the window in frustration.
"A mutant? They have mutants working for them now?" the girl looked like she was about to throw a fit.
"It's like this whole thing, it might be brainwashing, we're not sure, but we need to get out of here."
"Fuck, they can brainwash?" it just kept getting worse and worse.
"Focus! They're probably in the building already, where can we escape?"
"The roof?"
"Is there a fire escape from there? Otherwise, we'd just be stuck in the open air."
"No, it's a new high rise, stairs ruin the aesthetic…" the teen tried to think, but nothing was coming to her. She had been around the building to get the lay of it, but all of her escape plans had always depended on her powers. "The penthouse takes up the entire top floor, so we can't escape to another apartment…the balcony…which is twenty floors up…we could try to jump down to the next balcony? It's right under us…ish."
"Ish? If you think twenty feet is 'right below.'" Clarice had seen the outside of the building from where they had parked. There was no way they would be able to make that jump and it'd be suicidal to try, especially if neither had their powers.
"Fuckkkk, this was a terrible place to squat," the teen was questioning every life choice. She looked around, hoping for some divine inspiration.
Luckily, it came to her when she noticed the bin of garbage she had yet to throw out.
"The garbage chute, the penthouse has its own access in the secondary servant's kitchen."
"The servant's kitchen?"
This stupid apartment has more than one kitchen?
"Yeah, it's where a catering company is supposed to cook and set up, so the rich people don't see them when they throw parties."
The teen ran and Clarice followed.
While she thought the apartment was a huge waste of space and gross display of wealth, she was happy it was so large because Sentinel Services had started to bang down the entrance, but it was on the opposite side of where they were. They made it in time to the servant's kitchen and like most things in a wealthy home, it was hidden and behind the main kitchen.
Clarice would never have known it was there, the door well-hidden and almost seamless.
They heard agents yell orders at each other, shouting if an area was clear. There was one that stood out,
"Span out! Her powers are down, and we have all the entrances covered. There's no way for her to escape."
But they clearly weren't familiar with the layout of the penthouse or simply forgotten about the garbage chute, the two made it and while it was a tight fit, the girl had thrown her backpack down first and then soon followed. Clarice was right behind her.
The commotion the agents were making covered the sound of their descent.
Clarice tried to keep an ear out for any agent that might have found the hidden kitchen and tried to follow them, or decide to shoot down the chute and ask questions later. It seemed they were convinced the teen was hiding somewhere within the apartment because she estimated they had gone down several floors and it didn't seem like anyone was the wiser.
"This is actually cleaner than I thought a garbage chute would be," Clarice couldn't help but notice the distinct lack of filth.
"Yeah," the girl struggled to safely go down the shaft by using her strength to keep her in traction, her speech stressed. "I don't think a lot of people actually live here," she thought to make conversation. "All the condos are millions of dollars, and the fees are over $2k a month. That's not including utilities or internet."
"What? Who can actually afford to live here?" she didn't understand how something so expensive could exist.
"I think it's just a money laundering scheme for billionaires," the girl might be onto something. "Do you know if that mutant has a limited range?"
"No idea, he's John's friend…John is part of the Mutant Underground, also not a sex trafficker," Clarice had to point out.
"Yeah, maybe," the girl wasn't so sure. "Hold up," she stopped for a second to see if her powers would work, and she did not jump anywhere to her disappointment. "Well, we're still too close I guess," and continued their slow descent.
"What's your name?"
"…Gemma," she finally said, maybe she owed a little bit more respect for someone who did help her out. If they hadn't gotten the head start, then she might have found herself powerless and with a gun to her face.
"Well, Gemma, please know that I wouldn't go this far to save someone from Sentinel Services, and crawl down a garbage chute, just to sex traffic them…there are plenty of easier targets on the streets."
"Yeah, but I'm really pretty and have an awesome power. I'd get way more money than the average mutant girl."
"Wow, you think highly of yourself," although Clarice rather liked the confidence.
Gemma snorted,
"It's the truth, I'm very sex traffic-able. Weird old men love small Latina girls, only second to tiny Asians."
"Ugh, I hate that you're right," Clarice had come across her fair share of gross men who wanted her ever since she was a pre-teen.
"I bet you got hit on a lot by weird sci-fi fantasy nerds," as Clarice was Asian and looked like an elf-fairy princess.
"Are you like, part telepathic? Stop reading my past."
Both of them laughed, and they descended down a few more feet.
Gemma's arms and legs were starting to get tired, and she worried they were nowhere near the bottom and eventually they'd give out and she'd fall. She also worried that even if they did get to the bottom, would they have anything to land on? She could only hope there was a garbage receptacle filled with soft bags of garbage that wasn't too rank. But for all she knew, the bin was gone or empty. They could fall without their powers to help either of them, and break every bone in their bodies.
She knew she had to throw her bag, but she wished it was within easy reach.
"Fuck, I don't think I'm going to make it," she stressed through gritted teeth, trying to hold on.
"Come on, we can do this…we have to," although Clarice was struggling as much.
I'm going to do so much strength training when we get back to the Underground. Fuck this is hard.
Now Clarice was jealous of John's powers, he could probably go up and down the chute several times without getting tired.
Gemma gave one more try to her powers, and she nearly cried when a small flame appeared at her fingertips.
"Yes, thank you God," she exclaimed.
"What?" Clarice asked above her, not seeing her wield a flame.
"My powers are back…can you teleport out?" while she suspected the older mutant to be a sex trafficker, or not really because she did have a good point of there being easier marks, she wasn't one to abandon anyone.
"I create portals, but I don't have the room to expand them, and I would need use of my hands anyway," as with Gemma, Blink's arms were used to keep her up and not falling to her death.
"How did you get into the apartment or to my room then?" she distinctly did not remember seeing any portals.
"I can see energy, it's like the energy used to transverse space or something, but I create or pull in that energy to create portals and it turns pink. You leave a rip of energy whenever you teleport. I can see it and walk through it to wherever you go. I used a rip you created off of Pharr."
Gemma remembered Pharr Road, and thought it was interesting she created these rips in space, she hadn't known that.
"Alright, then I'm going to jump out of here…fuck I guess I'll have to leave my bag…"
"Can you not travel anywhere you can't see or haven't been?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"I'm the same way."
"Cool, power sisters…OK, I'm going to jump out of here and hopefully you can follow me."
Before Clarice could ask where she was going, she was gone and she did see the rip of energy. Blink did a short prayer, hoping that she could use the rip from above the same as she did from the sides.
It was a leap…a drop of faith and she let go.
Her prayers were answered because she found herself crouching in a field next to some woods. the sun was setting, the sky ablaze with the dying of the light with flares of orange fading into pinks and purples.
"Holy shit, it worked."
Gemma was a few feet away, glad the teen was smart enough get out of the way otherwise she may have landed on her.
"So, you see an energy rip of where I appeared?"
"Yeah, it's right here," she moved and motioned her hand to where it was. She didn't touch it because she did not want to end up back in the trash chute.
Gemma couldn't see anything, she raised her hands and Blink was surprised to see the air start to condense into a small cloud, and then move about in whisps. Whatever Gemma was trying to discern, it didn't work.
"I don't see anything, and I can't sense any difference when I manipulate the air."
"You can control air too?" she'd never admit it out loud, but she was a little jealous. More than one power and her teleporting didn't seem cause a physical strain? She could only be so lucky.
"I can create fire, manipulate water, and make plants grow too," she said casually as if it weren't a big deal. With a flick of her hand, she had given a small demonstration of those powers.
She had created a small flame, condense some water into falling like rain, and the grass beneath had grown a few inches.
"You have five powers?" that didn't seem fair.
"I think it's actually one power, manipulating matter or something, and it just covers those different things."
"Still…I knew a mutant and all he had was a long neck."
The genetic lottery was a bitch.
"Long neck?"
"Yeah, it was like…really abnormally long…you know how some people are tall because either their torso or their legs are long?"
"Sure."
"For him, he was tall because of his neck. It was weirdly skinny too, and I'm not even 100% sure he was even a mutant, he might have just had a weird birth defect or something…he did like that he could always see the stage at concerts, didn't like that he always had to be in the back at the movie theatre…anyway this is pointless," she didn't know why she got into this line of conversation.
"We're in the middle of a field?" she questioned the obvious and looked around. She could discern a white barn in the distance, but not much else.
"Yeah, this is Paquin Farms in Harpers Ferry…West Virginia," Gemma explained when it was clear Clarice had no idea where that was.
"West Virginia?" she couldn't believe how easily and far Gemma could travel.
No wonder Trask Industries wants her.
"Why West Virginia?"
Gemma shrugged,
"Most middle of nowhere place I could think of. It's the off season and it's getting dark. I figure there's no government agency, much less Sentinel Services for miles and miles."
"Makes sense…you can get us back to Atlanta, though, right?"
"I could, but why would I go back?" Gemma looked at her askance, "If the people who want to arrest you are in Atlanta…then obviously don't be in Atlanta."
"That's where the Underground is…which is not a sex trafficking ring. Look, I don't know why you think that, but I did come to help. I did help, we help mutants, we don't traffic...well I guess technically we do traffic, BUT to Mexico where the laws are more mutant friendly. It's not a sex trafficking, it's safety trafficking," she winced when she said it out loud because no matter what, adding "trafficking" after something made it sound like it was terrible. "I've been on my own and it sucks. No one has your back, and it's just getting more and more dangerous for mutants. The humans? Their technology is advancing, they have these robot dogs that can sense the mutant gene and adjust to many powers, they're almost indestructible…we have a mutant in the Underground that can destroy them because his power is to blow things up, and even he had a hard time doing that. Sentinel Services have a mutant that nullifies powers, they're probably working on a way to nullify them in other ways too, it won't stay as just the collars. I'd bet money on it. At the Underground, there'll be others to help protect you."
Gemma's first instinct was to tell that no one could really protect her, it was just her. She had been run off by her family as soon as her powers manifested and had been on her own ever since.
Clarice was right thought, being on her own sucked. The longest she had stayed anywhere was that penthouse, and even then she risked venturing out every day just to get some exposure to people so it wasn't just unending stretch of loneliness and hoping she wasn't arrested.
"Gemma, we found you because Sentinel Services wanted you specifically. We've been spying on their systems and listening to their police chatter. They want your teleporting ability. We don't know what they did to John's friend, but he would never have joined them unless they did something messed up to his mind. Who knows what they want to use your powers for, but it can't be anything good."
"Fuck," she had a good point. "Do you know how they even found me?"
"From what our intel can gather, they're fast and loose with warrants these days. They have cameras everywhere."
"Fuck," it would be the same for every city then. If she tried to make it on her own, then she'd have to stick to small nowhere towns. Not exactly bastions of tolerance she would want to risk going through.
She had no money and literally only what she wore and carried in her pockets. It was like when she first got kicked out, all over again.
She took a minute to really think out her options. She had to leave her bag which had her clothes and toiletries in. She'd have to start over, and now she was paranoid that she'd be caught on camera stealing anything and Sentinel Services would come crashing through wherever she ended up. She had tried less luxurious accommodations before, and she always felt like she had to keep one eye open because there were other mutants or regular homeless people who would steal from her.
Clarice seemed sincere, and she did help her. It did feel nice to have someone have her back.
"OK, I can go with you," Gemma felt like she could at least give the Underground a chance. She could always jump somewhere else if she changed her mind. "Just…just promise me you are not going to sell me to a sex ring…like say it out loud."
Clarice was glad Gemma was willing to go with her, she really worried why the teen was so paranoid about being sold into prostitution.
"It's not a sex trafficking operation. I promise you, you won't be sold to a sex ring," it was an easy thing to promise because it's not what they did or ever planned to do.
"Where is the Underground?"
"It's in north Atlanta, near Whitewater trail."
"I haven't been there, so I can't jump us there. I've mostly only been around the city and tourist traps."
"And I've never tried to make a portal going that far, so I think your jumps are the way to go. Let me call my people and I really hope they didn't get caught. They probably freaked out when I disappeared."
"You had other people try to rescue me?"
When Clarice nodded, Gemma felt a little better about her situation. She didn't think anyone, much less a bunch of people she never met would go through so much just to save her. It was an odd feeling, being cared about.
Clarice thanked whatever deity was showing them favor, because she reached into her pocket and her little burner flip phone was still intact. She speed dialed the only number on it and Marcos picked up.
"Marcos, you're not going to believe where I am."
The sun was just a sliver on the horizon and Gemma wondered if she should bother lighting a flame to give them light. Clarice was speaking to whoever Marcos was, and they were coordinating where to meet that Gemma had been before.
"OK," Clarice had gotten off the phone, they had the light of a full moon to see each other. "My people were on the garage across from the Claremont and said that Sentinel Services basically went home as soon as they figured out you weren't in the penthouse, with maybe one or two agents staying behind in case you come back. John could sense that we weren't in the building, so they stayed put, hoping we'd come back. Sage, our computer mutant, said that besides trash, they didn't find anything. I don't think they thought to look at the trash chute at all. If they know you can teleport, then they may have decided to just cut their losses as they had no way of knowing where'd you jump to. So that's good. Hopefully they think you're gone for good. So perhaps Atlanta is the best place to be because it'd be the last place they'd think you'd stick around."
Gemma nodded her head, that made some sense to her.
"They're going to head to Parr where the car is, do you remember how to get there?"
"Yeah, it's the street I normally let off on because it's one way and people don't normally take it. The meter maids are ticket happy there."
"Can you teleport people with you?"
"I haven't tried before, but I know I can take stuff with me."
"Well, I don't want to be the guinea pig in case living things get turned inside out or something…my initial portals weren't exactly the safest to travel through."
"Yikes," Gemma only imagined what could go wrong. "My bag's not worth going back for, so I basically just have what I have on me…" which sucked, but there was nothing she could really do about it. "I'm going to get cleaned up first, I'm all gross."
They both were. The trash shoot wasn't heavily used because so few people lived in the building, and it was the shoot specifically for the penthouse, but that didn't mean it was completely clean either. They both had smudges of grime on them and their clothes.
"How are you…" but before Clarice could finish, a cloud appeared above Gemma and rained down on her.
I would have killed to have that power while on the run.
Clarice definitely was jealous of Gemma's powers. More so when the teen was clean enough and used her powers to then wick away all the extra moisture and her clothes and hair were dry.
"Got to make a good first impression for the Underground, right?"
"Can I have a shower too? I would also like to not meet my friends looking super gross."
Gemma smiled and laughed, she created a cloud over Clarice who then laughed in delight when the water was warm.
"Let me know if it gets too hot."
"No, it's perfect," and although she did not have soap, the warm water was enough to wash the dirt away. When she was done, Gemma again did her trick to dry her, and it was probably the best shower she's had in years.
"Alright, ready to go?" Clarice was ready to get back home. The bank wasn't much, and she was rather still peeved about what Dreamer had done to her, it was the closest thing to home she's had in almost a decade.
"As I'll ever be," Gemma tried to rally.
Without further ado, Gemma disappeared, and Clarice followed the rip of energy she had left behind.
Although they were in an abandoned bank with dilapidated walls and floors that seemed to be held up with rusty nails and fervent prayers, Gemma couldn't help but feel like she was in the principal's office and about to be scolded.
Her blood was still pumping from her run in with Sentinel Services. The government agency she usually had no issue leaving in the dust, but they had come prepared with a mutant that was able to block her powers. She couldn't even think about how messed up it was that they would hire mutants to capture other mutants, and that mutants would hunt their own kind.
"So, what are your powers?" the mutant called Sage asked her, she was sitting next to the one called Marcos, who had been part of her rescue team. They were sitting in the vault and using it as an office.
Gemma wondered if they had some sort of rule against certain powers, perhaps if they thought the mutant was too dangerous then they wouldn't let them stay. She didn't think any of her abilities were outright dangerous on their own, but they certainly could cause a lot of damage if she wanted to.
But that was true for any number of powers, in her opinion. Push anyone far enough, they'd figure out a way to survive.
If she were honest with herself, part of her would rather go on the run again and stay in abandoned houses. Anything was better than sleeping on the hard ground of an abandoned bank. But if Sentinel Services had the ability to nullify her powers and were able to find her despite all of her careful evasion tactics, then it was safer to be around other mutants, especially if some of them had the ability to cloak their location, such as the Mutant Underground had.
"When they aren't being dampened," she tried to joke, although it fell a little flat, "I can…teleport. I call it jumping…" there was a whole story of why she called it that, but it didn't seem pertinent, nor the time and she was trying really hard to keep the story short and not annoy them, "I can only jump to places I can see or that I've been to before. I can also manipulate the elements…I think the jumping is an extension of those abilities, mostly manipulating airspace and the solid matter which is all that makes up the 'earth' part of the elements, and apparently I pull at some sort of energy that allows for teleportation and leave a rip which I didn't know until today…" they didn't seem interested and really, she was just filling in space with chatter. She had no way of knowing how or why she had both abilities, but she did.
Her abilities seemed to have gotten their attention.
"You have more than one power?" Sage was surprised, it was rare to come across a mutant who had more than one ability.
"Well, I think it's just one power with several different presentations," Gemma hoped they didn't think she was being pedantic, but she just wanted to be clear. "It's really just manipulation of matter…I can't create plants, and fire is just rapid oxidation, so it's really an extension of manipulating 'air' which is kind of a vague term…" she stopped when it looked like they were getting confused. "Anyway, it's manipulating matter which presents itself as the ability to control the four elements of earth, fire, air, and water and the ability to traverse between two points, bypassing the physical space between them."
"This jumping," Marcos was more interested in that ability, as he has met several mutants with the ability to control the elements. She was the first to be able to control all four, but it still was a somewhat common mutant ability. "Can you jump with others? Or take objects with you?"
"Yeah," Gemma replied, nodding, "Well…" she had to walk back a little and admit, "I haven't tried with people, but I can take like at least 25 lbs, that's about what my backpack weighs."
And the stuff she's stolen was more or less 1-25lbs, plus her clothes always went with her.
Sage and Marcos eyed each other, both a bit excited to have someone with a really useful power in addition to Clarice. They had Blink, but she had a tentative hold on her powers, and they weren't as reliable as they would like. There was also the issue of Dreamer using her powers on Blink, so they had to plan for if Clarice would leave. Marcos didn't blame her as it was a serious breach of trust. He also couldn't blame Dreamer, not when John's life was on the line.
It was a shitty situation, and they had no shortage of those lately.
They weren't exactly proud of their line of thought to be excited about using a 15-year-old and basically recruiting her to be a real member of the Underground, and that they were glad that she seemed to be alone. It was unlikely she would push to be sent to Mexico with no family, so perhaps it'd be easy enough to convince her to stay and at the very least help out around the compound.
"Do you know why Sentinel Services was after you?" they wanted to get her version of events, as Sage had access to SS files that explained the agency's justification for taking mutants.
Specifically, for Gemma, she was charged with illegal use of her powers, and squatting. They didn't judge her for any of it, they were all just trying to survive in a hostile world. They themselves were squatting in the very building they were in; it wasn't even clear who owned the abandoned bank. In their minds, and they were certain Gemma felt the same for the places she slept in, if no one was using it then what harm were they really causing?
She was also only fifteen, she hadn't said it but if she were on her own, then it was for a reason. All too often they had taken in runaways because their parents would not accept a mutant into the family.
Gemma did tell them a familiar tale of being kicked out when her powers emerged.
"I wasn't even allowed to gather my clothes or anything. I was run off with a shot gun and had to make it on my own. I had heard too many horror stories of the few shelters that allowed mutants, some where they disappeared because of Sentinel Services. And they told us in school that the Mutant Underground was a terrorist organization that sold mutants to gangs that used them in fighting rings or sold into sexual slavery if they were pretty."
Marcos was aware of such fighting rings from John, he wouldn't be surprised if there was a secret black market for underage mutants that could fight. He was also aware there were gangs that pretended to be the Mutant Underground or a similar organization, offering to help but in reality, kidnapped pretty young mutants, both boys and girls, to pimp them out. He didn't blame her for trying it on her own or being paranoid from what Clarice had told them.
She then explained how she would jump into grocery stores after hours and take food, or to Wal-Mart or Target to get supplies.
"I didn't steal a lot, mostly just meat to get protein and bread," she tried to explain herself. She wondered if they wanted to deter their wards from stealing since it could dangerous and alert Sentinel Services to their activities. She also worried that perhaps they didn't want actual criminals in their midst. She didn't know where she'd go if that was the case. Sentinel Services seemed to be everywhere, if she had to leave then she'd jump out of Atlanta and have to backtrack to one of her previous locations she squatted.
Nowhere felt safe, though.
"We've all done stuff like that to survive," Marcos tried to assure Gemma, who looked worried. The Mutant Underground wasn't above stealing from big box stores when money ran tight. They did their best to stretch every dollar their patrons gave them, and normally the mutant families that came through gave whatever cash they had on hand, or drained their bank accounts as fast as they could before they were frozen. Still, there were some months where they simply did not have enough, and they had to make do. He himself had done a lot worse, stealing to eat was never a real crime in his eyes. "You're welcome to stay here as long as you like. We do have some rules, mainly not using your powers against the other residents or to endanger the compound. As you can see, this is not exactly the Claremont, so use your brain to not compromise the foundation or the walls."
"I know this is probably overwhelming," Sage tried to be a bit gentler and more tactful, "We do have resources to create a new identity for you, and we have connections to organizations that help mutants in Mexico. They can set you up with a fresh new start."
"If you decide to stay, then we just ask that you help out. Because you're fifteen and now on Sentinel Services' radar, we won't really ask you to venture out or go on runs, but there's always something to do on the compound. Clean, do laundry…just help."
Gemma nodded, it seemed like a fair exchange for a roof over her head and the security of the mutant who cloaked the compound in fear to turn humans away.
They went over a few more logistics, mostly on how to not bother Pedro, as it was his job to help cloak their compound, and the few places they could put her to sleep.