Chapter 6: A Rogue's Gallery
-SHIELD Helicarrier-
"And that's basically the long and short of it, Director." Katerina said as she and Johan stood in Nick Fury's office on the Helicarrier, explaining the full scope of the current situation.
"So your nephew got involved in a big mutant rescue, getting them away from Fisk… Not bad for a teen, I'll admit." The director of SHIELD mused. "But why's he asking for me to be there?" He questioned.
"We have the same question." Johan replied. "I guess this is something that needs to be witnessed, or something." He added.
"Alright then. Did your nephew mention the names of these new mutants?" Fury questioned. "As you did mention wanting to try and allow them a chance to reunite with their families in exchange for their cooperation." He noted.
"Marcus Mussolini (no relation to the historical one), Romano Sanchez, Fatima Qdir aka Bast, Pele and Kai Kolani and their leader, Chelsea Marks." Katerina replied.
"Marks… Any relation to our own Jason Marks and FBI Liaison Sam Marks?" Maria Hill questioned thoughtfully.
"Yep. She's their runaway sister, the one they've been looking for for over a decade." Katerina replied.
"In that case, if you think you can get those two to come with you, do that. Could actually take out the middleman." Fury nodded. "Qdir though… I seem to recall a Marine Corp Lance Corporal with that same name who's part of the Lance Corp Underground. A Suleiman Qdir." He mused. "Any relation?" He asked, looking at Johan.
"A sibling relation, I think." Johan replied thoughtfully. "He's Fatima's younger brother. And only currently living relative." He added.
"Contact him and inform him of his sister's status. My guess it'd be music to his ears, what with him being scheduled to be discharged from active duty soon on account of not having a deployment to go to." The man told his subordinate.
"Yes, sir." The man nodded in response. "Not sure about Sam and Jason though, Sam's currently working a case with the Jeffersonian and Jason is currently helping transport some recently seized AIM assets." He admitted.
"Inform them when you can." Fury told him.
"Will do, sir." Johan nodded before the man nodded for them to leave.
As they did though, the agent was quick to take out his phone and dial Jason's number. As the fellow agent was his direct subordinate on account of him previously being Johan's designated probational agent or 'probie', Johan was confident that he'd answer—regardless of if he was busy or not.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, back at the institute, the rescued mutants were all settling into the place pretty well all things considered, with one notable exception being Marcus, who had developed a habit of constantly fidgeting around shaking his leg in pure anxiety on account of him not being able to get his drug fix at the institute whatsoever.
Joshua, being the observant ninja captain he was, turned to Chelsea to ask how bad it was upon seeing this too many times. She told him that it was severe, as Marcus' actions indicated. This made the teen shake his head, already seeing Marcus's addition as an issue.
Joshua wanted Marcus on his crew, but it was clear to him that wouldn't happen until the man curbed his addiction.
Aside from that, everyone seemed to be getting along pretty damn well, Calvin even seemed to have taken Chelsea, Romano and the twins in as surrogate siblings—as he was sadly an only child.
Chelsea couldn't help but sigh at this, as she definitely liked the idea, but the reminder of having a younger brother seemed to make her melancholic, which Josh and Cal noticed.
"Hey, what's wrong, Chels?" Josh asked.
"Yeah. Why by the look on your face you seem, glum." The Calico eyed teen noted.
"I… I just miss my brothers…" The woman sighed in reply.
"I'm an only child, so I can't relate." The quartermaster shrugged.
"I had an older brother myself, Nathan, he passed away some years ago." Joshua sighed, causing Chelsea to look at him. "Kidney cancer." He explained.
"Ouch. Bad way to go…" The blonde winced.
"It was rough, I even tried to chip in some cash for his treatment." Calvin chimed in. "But it really only gave him an extra year." He sighed. "I think that's why we wanted to save you guys. Because we've had our fair share of people we couldn't save." He admitted.
"I can see why you were so dead set on getting us away from Fisk." Chelsea hummed. "Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see my brothers again. But can you imagine how awkward and painful it would be if I just dropped back into their lives out of the blue like that? They'd probably just drive me away out of resentment on the spot!" She exclaimed.
"Left them? I thought you were kidnapped?" Calvin questioned. "Actually come to think of it, what was your family like? Your relationship to them." He asked.
"My big brother, Sam, was a rebel like me. He loved to party back when he was in high school." Chelsea began. "He would even go so far as to cover for us when one of us snuck out." She added, smiling fondly at the memory of him. " My younger brother, Jason, was the one I was closest to since he was a troublemaker like I was back then. Leaving him was hard." She continued. "Maverick was my youngest brother—by six years. I didn't know him that well." She finished.
"And your folks?" Cal asked, even more curious now. "Sorry if this seems personal it's just, I'd really like to know." He admitted.
"Dad had the behavior of a sociopath. He just faked emotions convincingly since he didn't experience many of them. I felt like an asset rather than his daughter with him." The blonde shuddered. "My mom was… You know that trope where a mom focuses on the family image at the expense of the family's emotions?" She asked.
"Yeah. Why?" The two teens asked in unison.
"She was like that." Chelsea told them. "I didn't feel like I was at home with my folks acting like that all the time." She added with a sigh.
"Okay, but what caused you to leave?" Joshua asked.
"My powers manifesting. I figured that the second they found out that I could turn into a giant Red Chromatic Dragon straight out of D , my parents would drive me out of the house and even my brothers would've turned on me." The blonde admitted. "To be honest I still kinda think that's how they'd act if I try to contact them now." She sighed.
"Okay, that's fearful thinking right there." The Dutchman's captain deadpanned. "My advice: Quit dwelling on what-ifs and take a fucking chance already. You won't get anywhere by acting scared." He told her.
"Josh is right. Believe me, if I suddenly lost a family member to a disappearance and I was as close to them as your brothers were to you? I wouldn't rest until I found them and I wouldn't care about the circumstances of what happened—I'd just be glad to have my brother or sister back." He added.
"Yeah. Just imagine if they've been looking for you for all this time, and you decide to just let them believe you're dead because you're scared. How is that fair to either of you?" Josh nodded. "Trust me, Chels, if I could have had just five more minutes with my brother I would have given up anything. You're lucky—you actually have that chance." He told her.
"Listen to him, Chels. He knows what he's talking about." Calvin urged.
The blonde seemed conflicted for a solid minute before she let out a heavy sigh. "Alright, alright, I'll give it a try." She sighed.
"Atta girl." Josh smiled.
Seconds passed before Calvin suddenly shot up straight and snapped his neck directly in Chelsea's direction.
"Wait, did you say that you can turn into a D Red Dragon?!" The mafia teen gasped.
"Yeah… Why?" Chelsea asked with a blink.
"Oh boy, here we go…" Joshua sighed, which only served to confuse Chelsea further.
"Josh, get Anne, Gabe, Gideon, and Nik to the danger room, and tell the others to grab popcorn." The teen said as he got up, putting on his Hidden Blades. "We're gonna challenge Chelsea here to a good old fashioned cage match." He grinned.
"Wait, what?" The blonde blinked.
(Later)
After ten minutes, Joshua and Calvin were with Anne, Gabriel, Gideon and Nik in the Danger Room with an apprehensive Chelsea as their opponent.
"Kids, I don't think this is a good idea, really." The blonde told them.
"Why? We're just sparring." Anne hummed as she stretched in her costume—which was inspired by Anne Bonney's outfit in AC: Black Flag—while turning into her shark girl form.
"Yeah. We're not having a death battle or anything. We know when and how to say stop when things go too far." Gideon nodded in agreement, doing some stretching of his own in his white and gold Flash inspired costume.
"That's just it." Chelsea told him. "Back when I was under HYDRA's thumb, before they moved me to the Breeding Program, I was in their soldier program. Where I had to fight kids my age or younger than me to the death Mortal Kombat style, and if I didn't strike the finishing blow—they'd just restrain me and make me watch as they killed the loser themselves—before dragging me off for "reeducational" torture sessions." She explained. "It got so bad that my animal instincts would flare up if I heard the sound of a gong and then I'd go into a wild rampage—killing everything and everyone in sight… possibly eating them, but I can't remember if that happened or not." She admitted, clutching her head at the flood of memories, images of kids mutilated by her claws, teeth and jaws, incinerated or severely burned, carnage and blood staining her hands… the endless screams and begging.
It was then that Logan placed a hand on her shoulder, quickly stopping her from having a severe panic attack.
"Hey, easy scales." The man told her. "Just breathe. This ain't HYDRA, and it ain't never gonna be HYDRA. So just put that out of your mind." He said, rubbing her back. "Just think of this as training. Don't take it seriously." He added.
"Well, that just gave me more reason to start planning raids on HYDRA's bases!" Joshua hissed under his breath, his shoulders shaking in anger. Anna nodded silently in agreement with him, her enhanced ears picking up his words.
Chelsea took a few calming breaths, before she was finally able to look at the kids.
"Alright. I think I'm good now." She nodded.
"If you don't wanna continue, we won't blame you." Gabriel told her, resting his club on his shoulder. He was dressed in a sort of Celtic styled Sumo armor, kinda like an Irish Oni.
"That said, let's begin." Calvin sighed as he stretched himself while Logan returned to the observation deck with the others.
Seconds later, a giant cage suddenly surrounded the group as they all got into fighting stances—Josh and Cal drawing their cutlasses. Gideon cocked his fists as well while Anne unsheathed a pair of knives and Nikolai twirled his spear.
Chelsea meanwhile, she just took a deep breath before a genuine smile spread across her face as she slowly transformed into a massive female Red Chromatic Dragon.
"Wow!" The shark girl whistled, impressed by Chelsea's dragon look. "Now that's a dragon!" She grinned.
"Like, whoa, she's gorgeous!" Kitty gasped in surprise from the look of the blonde's beast form.
She wasn't wrong either, the dragon was very much feminine, with a thick yet slender body with curves that would make any male dragon drool at the sight of her, sharp claws, a strong tail, huge wings and robust horns stood out the most from her ruby red scales and tangerine underbelly—and her eyes, still as green as the purest emeralds—were even more beautiful in this form.
These were the things that caused Logan in particular to become momentarily mesmerized by. He'd thought Chelsea was attractive enough in her human form, that was undeniable—but he hadn't expected that beauty to translate so well between forms.
Meanwhile, Chelsea raised one of her forepaws to attack her opponents, prompting them to scatter as it slammed down where they were.
"Nik? Any ideas for how we should deal with this?" Josh asked as he went invisible.
"There's a pressure point between her wings on the small of her back, the joints of the wings, and some others where her joints are." Nik replied. "If I can get half of them, we should be good." He mused—right as he had to knee slide under a tail swing from the dragoness.
Anne ran towards the female dragon and was going to strike her with her Shadow Armor on her arms—only to be flattened under Chelsea's giant claw…
POP!
"Pop! Goes the weasel!" The redhead exclaimed as she popped out from in between the dragoness' claws and started running up her arm—assuming her Berserk inspired Shadow Armor form—and then slapping the Red Dragon across the face with her toxic armored tail and then adding another poisonous strike through a backflip kick to the chin that actually caused Chelsea to lose balance and fall flat on the ground—black toxin tar covering her skin.
"Ooh! That had to hurt!" Scott winced.
"Does Chels' healing factor help against poison?" Jean asked.
"It seems so, given she's already getting up." Charles pointed out.
"It depends on the toxin and the dosage." Bast elaborated.
Sure enough, the dragoness was already on her feet, though she was noticeably wobbly. Then she looked at Gabriel, who had his bat ready as his stomach glowed turquoise.
Then the chromatic dragon shot a fireball at him, prompting the cook to open the maw in his stomach and "eat" the attack. That actually made Chelsea blink at him in surprise.
"Haha! Nice job, Grendel!" Calvin grinned as Chelsea then turned her attention to him. "Uh oh." He yelped as Chelsea's neck scales started to glow.
"Cal, get back, that means she's gonna—!" Nikolai tried to warn his friend, before the dragoness let out a roar not unlike the dragons in Game of Thrones and then the teen was engulfed in a torrent of fire that left the reptile's maw.
Everyone was worried that Calvin was in danger, but then they were stunned when the fire seemed to swirl around a central point before it was revealed that the teen had absorbed it all.
The smoke billowed off the boy, but he, his clothing and weapons were left untouched, much to Chelsea's personal shock.
"Sssssssmokin'!" The boy grinned as he pinched a small flame out on his jacket, causing it to sizzle.
This caused everyone to facepalm as the Flying Dutchman's Quartermaster then charged the fire power in his hands, back of his shoulders and torso, to send himself flying at the dragon like Genos from One Punch Man, and delivered a flying axe kick to the flying lizard's cranium.
That made Chelsea's head slam down on the ground, leaving her dazed enough for Nik to get in close and hit a pressure point in her left hind leg. The pain from that snapped the dragoness out of her daze and made her attack him on instinct. Gideon was quick to rush in and get him out of dodge.
"Now Captain!" The boy exclaimed as Josh suddenly reappeared right on top of Chelsea's head, and he had Anne with him—having cloaked her with his powers.
"Alright Anne, use your electric armor and do your thing." He told her.
"Yes, sir!" The Irish shark girl grinned as her bio electric armor appeared, the facial part looking like a domino mask. Then she focused her electricity, the crackling getting Chelsea's attention.
'Oh shit…' She groaned, seeing where this was going.
"Whale Taser!" Anne exclaimed as she drove her fist down on the dragon's skull, shocking her so bad they could see her skeleton.
"That's a lot of lightning!" Scott exclaimed, glad his shades were dampening how bright the light from it was.
"No kidding! I can barely see!" Jean exclaimed as she shielded her face.
The large lumbering reptile let out a pained, creaking moan as she slowly started to slump and fall to the side.
"TIMBEEEEEER!" Gideon called as he zipped out of the way right before Chelsea fell to the ground with a loud thud.
"And that's how it's done." Joshua chuckled as everyone watched Chelsea turn back to normal.
"Urg… I've been electrocuted by HYDRA as a form of torture, hours and hours of getting shocked by defibrillators at higher and higher voltages—built a tolerance for it." She groaned, slowly trying to get up. "But that… I think that's the closest I got to being struck by lightning." She uttered as she was about to collapse again, only for the kids to catch her.
"We got ya, Chels." Calvin told her.
"Sorry about the shock. It was my first response to a bigger creature than me." Anne told her apologetically.
"How 'bout I make some Irish Stew and Soda bread to help you feel better?" Gabe suggested.
"And we'll carry you to the living room." Gideon smiled.
"Heh… I'd like all that." The blonde breath, smiling at them.
"Do you like tea, or coffee?" Nikolai asked as the guys carried her out of the danger room until Logan picked her up bridal style.
"Mmmm… Coffee, two creams and no sugar." The dragoness replied, subconsciously snuggling into Logan, a reflex from when she used to do the same to Sam when they were younger since he also carried her like this.
"Perfect, I just got a brand new Caribbean Roast I've been itching to try out." Calvin grinned. "I'll go brew up a pot." He nodded.
"Best make two, Calvin." Xavier told him. "As I've just been informed that our expected guests have arrived." He added.
"And here comes the part that's gonna be awkward for me, in one case…" Joshua muttered as everyone headed upstairs.
(Later)
Chelsea was now sitting with the others who escaped HYDRA accompanied by the X-Men in front of Nick Fury himself along with Johan and Katerina.
"Alright, first off, my name is Nick Fury. And I am only here to get any information about HYDRA you can give us, big or small it doesn't matter—we're not here to pry, you've already been through enough." The man told them. "And in exchange for your cooperation, we've elected to notify your next of kin of your status and will provide you with means to contact them." He added.
"Except in a couple cases." Johan amended, looking at Marcus. "Sorry Marcus, but I'm afraid your mother and father passed away last year and your sister is currently in rehab… With drug induced memory loss." He admitted reluctantly.
He hated giving bad news.
"And unfortunately, your mother passed away six months ago, Romano." Katerina nodded with a look of sympathy. "I'm sorry that you have to hear this. If there's anything we can do to help. Please, don't hesitate to ask." She told the two.
Marcus and Romano looked down in shock at that. All this time, finally they were free… Only to learn their families crumbled into nothing. It was heartbreaking.
"What about our parents?" The twins asked.
"I'm afraid they died in a helicopter crash trying to find you two a month after you vanished. I'm just sorry you have to find out like this." Johan told them with a sigh.
This caused Kai to start sobbing as she hugged Pele, who hugged her back, trying to fight back her own tears as she tried to comfort her sister.
"However, we do have some good news." Johan amended, looking at Chelsea and Bast while the former was given her stew, soda bread and coffee by Gabe and Bast hugged the twins. "For you two specifically." He continued.
"Huh?" Chelsea and Bast blinked.
"Your families are still alive." Katerina explained. "Well, mostly, in your case, Bast." She amended.
"What do you mean?" The cat woman asked.
"Most of your family was killed. The only one still alive is your brother, who joined the American military." Johan replied, much to her shock. "Specifically the Marines. He's been a great soldier so far." He added.
"What happened?" The woman asked. She might not have left her family on good terms but she still loved her mother and brother, so hearing that her mother died made her desperate to know that reason.
"It was a drive by shooting during a trip to visit relatives in Gaza, insurgents killed them due to their American nationality. Suleiman was the sole survivor of the attack—and it caused him to want to become a soldier to fight animals like that." Katerina told her. "Not a bad way to use tragedy to your advantage, all things considered." She shrugged.
Despite the sadness Bast felt at her mother's death, she couldn't deny how proud she felt about Suleiman's decision to grow strong and become a defender. When she saw him, she was giving him a strong hug.
"We have his current contact info, here." Johan told her, handing her a card. But as he went to pull away, she took his hand again, looking him deep in the eyes with a look of tearful gratitude as her tail swished and elf ears twitched.
"Thank you. Thank you so much." She whispered.
"No problem." The agent nodded back with a smile.
"What about my family?" Chelsea questioned.
"They're all alive. And let me tell you: your brothers were beyond… I'm not sure how to describe how happy they were to hear you were alive and safe." Katerina told her.
"Sam quit medical school to join the FBI in order to try and find you, and became our Liaison. All while Jason became a SHIELD agent, he was adamant about being sent to HYDRA bust missions in order to try and find you." Fury stated. "That was a real pain in my ass, but I respect a man with drive." He admitted.
"Maverick, according to them, tried to open and use a hotline, but his findings were only slight." Johan nodded. "They never stopped looking for you, Chelsea. Ever." He told the blonde. "Jase even had a picture of the four of you as kids, he had it on him at all times." He added. "He wanted to remind himself of why he was doing his job. Same with Sam." He elaborated.
"I… Shit… I didn't think they'd go that far at all." Chelsea blinked, completely stunned. The thoughts didn't seem to fully register, until a single tear streamed down her left cheek, causing her to wipe it as more tears started falling… until she slowly started shaking as she started crying.
Bast and the others immediately went to comfort her, with Logan placing a hand on her shoulder, allowing her to bury her face in his shirt out of desperation.
"Will that be all, or is there more?" Charles asked while Chelsea was preoccupied.
"Well, we can handle the relay of information later—for now, it was mentioned that Joshua had something worth Director Fury's attention." Johan replied, looking at his nephew. "What exactly is it?" He questioned.
"It's best I show you personally. Follow me." The teen replied, gesturing for his aunt and uncle along with their superior to follow him.
(Later)
A nervous Joshua now stood in front of Johan, Katerina and Nick on the Flying Dutchman's dock, the bottle containing the ship in hand.
"I don't remember having a dock built here." The SHIELD director commented as he looked around.
"I don't remember this in the blueprints, either. What's going on?" Johan wondered.
"And why does that ship in a bottle look like it has a roiling storm around it?" Katerina questioned, having seen the oddity of the item in question.
"That's what I intend to show you. This isn't a normal ship in a bottle. Watch." Joshua told them as he dropped it in the water.
This made the three adults blink before the Flying Dutchman rose up from its usual seafoam cloud, surprising them. It was obvious this wasn't what they expected.
"What the–?! How the fuck?!" The teen's aunt yelped with wide eyes.
"Come on. We can talk in the captain's cabin." Joshua told them as a boarding plank lowered, allowing them to board. "Let me just… tidy things up." He replied as he went into the room and straightened things out—before opening a wardrobe he hadn't had a chance to look through.
Opening it, he found a set of robes similar to Calvin's own, but in black and red with white trims. He was a little surprised to find it at all, but found it rather stylish.
"Hello new costume." He nodded as he got changed and grabbed the captain's journal for Fury to read, before stepping outside and saw Cal walking up next to Fury and his relatives. "Ah, and here comes my trusted quartermaster, right on time." He grinned.
"Are we missing something?" Johan questioned.
"I think it'd help make things easier to believe if you read this." Joshua replied as he tossed Fury the captain's journal.
"What is this supposed to be? Your journal?" The man questioned.
"Open it up to the most recent entry." The teen told him, the man doing so and reading it along with his subordinates.
"What?!" Johan gasped while Katerina's hair subconsciously turned into tentacles in shock and Fury just stared at the journal.
"So the Flying Dutchman is not only real, but you've also claimed ownership of it." Fury hummed. "Impressive work, kiddo. Claiming a ghost ship as your own ain't easy." He nodded in some measure of praise before frowning. "There's just one issue, though." He added.
"That being?" Joshua prompted.
"I recognize this ship as the exact one that fired on the Helicarrier. There wasn't any distressing damage; just some dents and nothing else. But I would like an explanation for what you were thinking when you did that." He told the teen in a no-nonsense tone that made Joshua understandably nervous.
"A-At the time of that incident, I had literally just become captain of the ship and was learning what worked aboard her." Joshua began as he reigned in his nerves. "The ship was following my will, so when I experimented with the cannons, I had honestly not expected them to actually fire." He continued. "Now I know better." He added further.
"It's true, I was there." Calvin chimed in.
"Well, I can't really get mad at you for not knowing how your ghost ship works." Fury sighed. "Still, on a professional level, I do still need to have you pay off the damages, minor as they were." He added.
"How about instead you just hire us as Anti-HYDRA privateers?" Calvin stated.
This caused Fury to glare at him, as if he was telling him non verbally to shut up.
"Do you think I'm stupid, Bryant? I give a mafioso like you and a Maneater like that redhead back there an inch like that—you'll take a mile that'll dig a hole SHIELD likely won't get out of!" The man hissed.
"Bitch please." The calico eyed teen scoffed.
"You're asking for a slam to the wall, crook in training." Fury growled.
"That's it!" Joshua shouted, shoving a finger in the man's face. "Shut your fucking gob, or I'll fill it with shot! Ya hear me?!" He barked in Fury's face right in the eye.
"Jo–" Katerina tried to say before her nephew held up a hand to stop her.
"Don't! I need to make it clear I don't take shit from anyone that's talking shit about my crew!" Joshua snapped. "Especially when that member of my crew is my best friend." He hissed, still glaring at Fury.
Fury was silent as he replaced the toothpick in his mouth before speaking.
"Loyalty to your men is an admirable trait, but don't forget that trust is a fragile thing. Even with friends who you'd consider family." The man said. "I know that too well—cuz last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." He added.
"Well maybe–" Calvin tried to say before being cut off.
"Calvin, that's enough." Joshua interjected with a sigh before things could get derailed even further. "He's not wrong about the Anti-HYDRA privateering, though. We do that, and we could just give whatever intel we find to SHIELD and do the same with AIM, if given the chance." He continued. "Their bases could even be converted into SHIELD bases, even. That could expand your operation range." He added further to try and sweeten the pot.
Fury seemed surprised for the briefest of moments before he spent about three minutes chewing on his toothpick—before removing it with a sigh.
"How much longer till you have a full crew?" The man asked.
"I'm five people short. I'll get in touch with you when this ship is ready to make HYDRA's life miserable." Joshua replied.
"Sounds good to me." The director nodded. "And to pay for the damages to the Helicarrier, I'll take a 10% cut of whatever plunder you manage to get." He stated.
"Fair enough. We can make do with 90% of what's left." The teen captain nodded, already coming up with ways to get as much plunder as possible to make things work.
He wanted his crew to be rich, damn it!
Calvin glared at Fury as he realized that they had to give a cut to him after the shit he just pulled.
"Something the matter, Bryant?" The man questioned.
"Fottiti! [Go fuck yourself]" The Italian-Irish teen spat.
The SHIELD director just smirked a bit before he handed Joshua a contact card along with returning the journal and walked off with Johan and Keterina in tow.
"That certainly went well enough." Joshua hummed as he pocketed the card.
"… You have a very strange definition of well." His best friend stated.
"Hey, if those cannonballs had managed to hit anything important on the Helicarrier, then the cut Fury would've put down would've been much worse." The assassin told his best friend in response.
"I was referring to when you threatened to shoot Fury." Calvin stated as they left the ship, causing his words to be heard by the others who were waiting for them.
"That was a bluff. You don't think I'm actually dumb enough to go through with that, do you?" Joshua questioned rhetorically as he snapped his fingers, and the bottled ship fell into his waiting arms.
"I know how you get when you're pissed." The boy stated.
"Yeah, yeah…" Joshua huffed, ending the conversation there.
(Timeskip)
A couple of days later, following the Flying Dutchman being put under a dormant contract by Nick Fury himself, the X-Men were finally to let out a sigh of relief.
And in particular, Chelsea Marks was pacing around the kitchen while having breakfast with Logan, Bast, Ororo, Xavier and Romano—Marcus was asleep due to taking sleep medication to relieve his anxiety—looking up at the clock periodically while the coffee brewed.
Logan, Joshua and Calvin saw this and knew what it was about: Anxiety and impatience for the moment her brothers arrived.
"Chels, the coffee's almost done brewing. Just sit down and have some breakfast." Joshua told her. "You'll puke otherwise…" He added.
"I can't help it; I'm all nervous." The blonde told him in response as she kept pacing.
"Sit down, Scales." Logan told her. "Trust me, a coffee'll help." He stated.
"... Alright…" The woman sighed as she sat next to him. The man then poured her a mug of coffee, along with himself and everyone else.
"Subject change." Calvin chimed in. "Logan, you said you encountered a lot of different mutants during your… three centuries of life?" He asked.
"The ones I can remember. Why?" Logan nodded, sipping his coffee.
"Any of them have a mutation like Chels'?" The boy asked, causing everyone to look at the man, partly because his healing factor seemingly allowed him to live from the 1700s, and partly because the idea of there being mutants similar to Chelsea genuinely made them want to listen.
"Once, yeah. She was apparently around since medieval times, so I was pretty young to her by the time we met. I honestly couldn't stand her old woman attitude—so we settled on being just friends." The scraggly man nodded.
Xavier chuckled at this. "Reminds me of an elderly woman my family knew, we had a similar relationship." He smiled.
"What dragon did she turn into?" Bast asked.
"A Silver Dragon." The man replied. "Her name was Cereza, Basilisk. She was pretty much the closest thing I had to a grandmother back then." He added with a chuckle.
"That must've been an interesting sight." Scott remarked as he and Jean entered the room.
Chelsea, meanwhile, froze mid-sip of her coffee.
"… That was my Great Great Grandmother." She muttered.
"I'm sorry, say vhat now?" Kurt uttered with a blink.
"Cereza Basilisk was my grandmother's mother." The woman replied. "She used to live in Russia and fought in the First World War and then moved to London during the Great Depression, then finally to America during WWII, temporarily working as a Night Witch alongside the Soviets before retiring and moving to where our family home was in Sedona, Arizona." Chelsea explained. "At least, that's what my grandmother told me as a little girl." She admitted, looking at Logan. "She was a mutant? You knew her?" She asked.
"Yeah, and we actually ran across each other a couple of times in the first World War." Logan nodded. "Apparently she was able to evade the Red Baron himself when she went dragon for one particular operation." He added, shocking everyone.
"Okay, that's impressive." Calvin whistled, Joshua nodding in agreement.
"She had moves for an old lady." Joshua nodded.
"Beware an old man in a world where young men die." Nikolai nodded, sipping Russian Caravan tea. "Or women, in this case." He amended.
"Amen to that." Logan nodded.
(Later)
After breakfast was done, the moment Chelsea had been waiting for came. Jason, Maverick and Sam had finally arrived.
"… Guys!" The blonde gasped in a choked voice as tears rolled down her face—before she ran and barreled into her three brothers.
Sam was 28 while Jason and Maverick were both in their early to mid twenties with brown hair and green and blue eyes respectively. Same was wearing an FBI agent outfit while Maverick wore a real estate agent suit.
Jason was the only blonde out of the three brothers, and had blue eyes. He was wearing his SHIELD agent uniform presently.
The one thing they all shared: Joy that their long lost sister had finally been found.
"Chels… Oh god, it's so glad to finally have you back." Sam sighed, caressing his sister's hair softly as the group hug kept going—not that they were complaining.
The others came to the entrance and, upon seeing the scene, decided to give them some alone time.
"Chels—what happened? Why did you leave? We thought we lost you!" Jason questioned, cupping his siblings face in his hands, tears of his own in his eyes.
"My powers. I– I thought you guys would hate me and drive me away!" The blonde dragoness choked out.
"What?!" Maverick gasped in shock.
"Chelsea, why—Why would you think that?" Sam questioned.
"We'd never act like that, you knew us better than that! We wouldn't have done that!" Jason told her incredulously.
"Where in the world did you even get that impression?!" Maverick had to wonder in disbelief.
"Our parents. They're attitudes made me unbelievably worried that you'd turn on me out of fear." She told him. "I-I know it sounds dumb and rash, but it's the truth!" She gasped, burying herself in her brothers' embraces. "I'm sorry, you three." She whimpered.
"Chels… You never had anything to be scared of." Jason told her as he tightened his embrace along with Sam and Maverick.
"You're our sister, Chelsea. We would never and will never abandon you." Sam nodded. "Ever." He added.
"Yeah." Maverick nodded.
It was then that Jason prompted everyone to pull back and got serious as they stood up.
"Johan filled us in. HYDRA… They tortured you, experimented on you, tried to wipe your brain, forced you to fight other mutants, watch them kill them and then wanted to breed you—." The SHIELD Agent listed, getting increasingly more angry as the words left his mouth. "And on top of that, the sick bastard who did this to you and your friends is still alive?" He growled.
"And that you were working as an escort and enforcer under Kingpin?" Sam added.
"Reluctantly. Sam. Trust me, I may have done the job but I didn't like it." Chelsea corrected.
"I'm just glad the people here got you out of there…" Maverick sighed.
"Yeah, that's basically the long and short of it." Chelsea nodded shakily. "The guy's name is Victor Rowner, he… he wanted to groom me into his personal "broodmare bride"." She elaborated. "He said several times that he had been feeling like he was falling in love with me… he has some sick definition of love." She spat.
"I'll kill him…!" Jason growled.
"If Joshua or Calvin don't get to him first." Chelsea told him. "Or me, either." She snarled, her tongue shifting to its forked form for a moment. "… Hey, guys?" She asked.
"What's up?" Sam asked.
"I found something out about our family. Something you might wanna hear…" She told them as Logan, Bast, Romano, the Twins and the two buccaneers circled back around to check on them.
"Everything okay here, Chels?" Bast asked carefully.
"Yeah… Yeah. Everything's better than I thought they'd be." Chelsea responded.
"These your friends?" Jason asked.
"Yeah. The two pirates there are Joshua Landbrecht and Calvin Bryant." Chelsea nodded as she pointed at the two.
"Calvin is the shorter one, so guess who I am." Joshua quipped with a chuckle.
"Fottiti." The shorter teen hissed with a recognizable Italian hand gesture.
"The cat woman is Fatima Qdir, but she prefers Bast." Chelsea chuckled as she continued.
"Hello." The Gazan catwoman chirped with a small smile.
"The man next to her is Romano Sanchez." The blonde nodded.
"Que pasa?" The man in question nodded in greeting.
"Kai and Pele Kolani are the twins over there." The Dragoness said as the two waved, Kai hiding behind her braver sister.
"How's it going?/Hi…" The two said in reverse order.
"And lastly the Scraggly guy over here." Chelsea hummed as she walked over to and leaned on Logan. "Is Logan Howlett, a guy whose healing factor made him live through the American Revolution to now." She stated. "He knew our great great grandmother." She added.
"Wait, hold the phone, are you serious?!" Maverick interjected in surprise, which his brothers shared.
"She was basically like my own version of Yoda or Obi-Wan, yeah." Logan nodded. "By the time I met her, she was—and I quote—nearly a thousand years old and was nearing the twilight of her life." He explained.
"Wow. She must've been one hell of a fighter." Sam blinked.
"Centuries of experience seem to prove that." Logan nodded. "She was a good woman. A great mentor. A true friend. Damn near the closest thing I had to family at the time. And a knock out of a drinking partner." He listed with a chuckle. "She managed to drink me under the table. Which shouldn't have been possible!" He added with a barking laugh.
"Oh wow!" Jason laughed along with Sam and Maverick.
However, before this bonding could go any further, Xavier's voice echoed around the building.
"X-Men. I've picked up the signal of an extremely disturbed mutant. Head to the Blackbird and Dutchman, we'll need as many hands as we can muster." He told them.
"Come on, crew! Let's move!" Joshua barked as he went to fetch his ship's bottle.
"I-I'm sorry guys, I gotta—." Chelsea said as she went to get her costume.
"Go. We'll catch up later." Sam told her.
"Go save the day, sis." Jason smiled.
"Kick ass while you do it." Maverick finished in an encouraging tone.
"See you guys." She smiled as she ran into her room and slipped on a black bodysuit with red protective padding, red gloves and boots similar to Logan's without claw holes, and instead had hidden blades.
'These can be superheated with your fire breath. Feel free to air assassinate from flight whenever you feel like.' - Josh.
"Oh hell yeah!" The blonde grinned almost ferally.
(Timeskip)
The gang reached the town where the mutant popped up and immediately split up. Romano, Bast, and the twins all stayed behind on the Dutchman while everyone else started looking.
Notably, Chelsea was flying overhead to see if she could spot anything, as was Storm through cloud cover.
Everyone else was ground level. Anne swam through any waterways that might lead somewhere, Gideon zipped around to check multiple places in rapid succession, Kurt ported around and Nikolai was tracking with Logan.
Cal, meanwhile, was taking a more grounded route, asking around about someone matching the Rogue's description and following the hearsay.
Surprisingly, it seemed to be working remarkably better than the others.
After a while, he was able to track her down to a cemetery. There, he found her in clear distress.
'Hm… Auburn hair with white at the front, check. Pale skin, check. Goth clothes, check… What the hell is with that top, though?' Calvin thought, wondering about her clothing choices before shaking his head. No time for that.
Walking up to her, he whistled to get her attention.
"Hey! Wassa matta you, pretty lady?" The boy greeted in his more natural little Italian Port Clovis accent. "… That sounded way cooler in my head." He muttered, realizing how dumb it sounded once he said it aloud.
"What the–?!" The distressed girl yelped in surprise and panic.
"Whoa, mi dispiace [I'm sorry, prima Donna [Dear Lady, I didn't mean to scare you." The boy said, trying to keep her calm. "Are you okay? You seem… rattled." He noted, sitting next to her.
"That's hardly the last word I'd use…" Rogue breathed as she tried to collect her nerves.
"Dio Mio, that bad huh?" Calvin questioned. "Well I could help you feel better if you vent to me." He offered. "I'm Calvin, by the way. Calvin "Calico" Bryant." He added, holding out a hand for a shake.
"Bryant? The same crazy people from Port Clovis?!" The girl stuttered in clear fear.
"Do I act remotely like a crazy person?" Calvin deadpanned, causing her to pause. "Thought so." He nodded. "Now, what's got your knickers in a twist?" He asked.
"Ah don't know. I just touched a guy at a dance and I suddenly had his memories. Then when I went to his home, some guy with claws attacked me!" She explained.
"Claws? Hold it. I know a guy with claws." The mobster teen said. "And this kid, Cody, was his name, right?" He asked, having gotten the lowdown on the street.
"Yeah, why?" She asked.
"The guy I know who matches that description was halfway on the other side of town by then. It couldn't have been him." Calvin stated. "His name is Logan, and trust me. That guy would just as soon chop off his own ear than hurt us kids." He stated.
"How can I know that's the truth?" Rogue questioned.
"Think about it: You can absorb life force, I'm immune to that because my absorption powers counteract it, you saw a guy with claws—I happen to know said person and know he's in a different part of town." The teen listed. "Is it really so hard to contemplate the idea that you might've been attacked by a shapeshifter who's trying to frame said individual?" He asked.
"But… Who's behind the attacks on me, then?" Rogue wondered with a frown as she started thinking clearly.
"That would be a shapeshifter we know." A voice said as Josh made himself visible.
"Gah! Josh, don't do that!" Calvin gasped.
"See this?" The captain of the Flying Dutchman said as he pulled out a camera and showed several pictures of Mystique turning into Logan and back.
"How'd you get these?" Rogue asked.
"While my best friend here was looking for you I went to Cody's home to see if his memories led you there." The teenager replied.
(Flashback)
Under his invisibility, Joshua went to Cody's home completely unopposed. Upon arrival, he looked around for a bit before finding someone he thought was Logan, prompting him to pull out his camera in suspicion.
His hunch turned out to be correct, since it ended up being Mystique. He took a series of pictures right away after that.
"This is for your own good, Rogue…" The blue skinned woman sighed.
'Yeah, good luck fooling me with that shit.' Joshua scoffed mentally before he quickly left.
(Flashback over)
"Bitch didn't even see it coming." Cal chuckled, right as Rogue's aunt Irene arrived on the scene.
"A-Aunt Irene?" The girl stuttered.
"Rogue, get away from them! They're dangerous people that would sooner take advantage of you than trust you!" The blind woman tried to urge the goth girl.
"Wow, can you be any more obvious?" Calvin scoffed. "I mean come on, I'm from two crime families and even I'm shocked at how obviously you're lying through your fucking teeth!" He added.
"Your acting is actually terrible." Joshua sighed in mock disappointment. "If we were anywhere near as bad as you're lying about, then it would be blatantly obvious." He stated, deploying a hidden blade for emphasis before retracting it.
Rogue seemed confused and distraught, right before Calvin got between her and a bullet to the head that hit him in the forehead instead.
But due to him absorbing the kinetic energy, it just bounced off of him and onto the ground, causing Mystique's position to be revealed and allowed Josh to get her with a rope dart and yank her out into the open.
"GET OVER HERE!" He barked before clotheslining the woman to the ground.
"Gack!" The blue skinned woman grunted as she hit the ground hard.
"Honestly, trying to commit murder in some fucked up case of asset denial? Disgusting." Joshua sneered down at Rogue's would-be killer, clearly disgusted.
"Not to mention cliched." Calvin nodded as he hoisted the woman up by the throat and yeeted her into a sarcophagus building. "Seriously, that's like, rule 19 in the cliche villainy handbook." He added, dusting his hands off.
"Aunt Irene, d-did you go along with this?!" Rogue questioned in a betrayed tone as she looked at her supposed guardian.
"I also saw Mystique with your aunt in a limo minutes before you were attacked." Josh said. "She knew, and she probably didn't want you to get hurt, but she didn't exactly stop Mystique, either." He added, arms folded.
"I was trying to set her on the most beneficial path for her! My powers showed it to me!" Irene tried to defend herself.
This caused Calvin to start cracking up as he soon burst out into a fit of hyena-like laughter that Josh regularly teased him about sounding like Ed from the Lion King.
"Are you serious?! You have to be delusional if you think your foresight is that good!" He howled in amusement.
"There are always better paths than the one you saw!" Joshua laughed in agreement. "This one is the one that destroys your relationship with Rogue, if I'm reading this right." He added.
"Come on, Rogue. Let's go." Cal nodded as he took the girl's hand while she hesitantly looked back at her aunt.
She wanted to say something–anything–to convey how she felt about her own aunt condoning this… But she had no words to properly express how betrayed she felt. Without a word, she left with the two teenage pirates.
Irene was distraught, feeling like she had screwed up in a way not easily mended. She had no idea if she'd get a chance at fixing the damage she caused.
Mystique, however, was seething angrily. Rogue was supposed to be her best asset, and she lost her to two pirate cosplayers (if she only knew).
(Timeskip)
"Sorry that our first meeting wasn't under better circumstances." Bast said as she and Ororo fixed the southern belle some tea to help her feel better.
"I just wish my own aunt didn't put me in that position…" Rogue sighed sadly as she accepted the tea when it was ready.
"Well you have nothing to fear while you're here, Rogue. You're among friends." Xavier told her.
"Exactly. The only thing you'll find here is a family." Joshua nodded, calling from the couch with the guys playing video games. "Oh come on!" He groaned as they took an unexpected loss.
"Okay, press pause! I'm making tea!" Calvin exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.
"Right behind you!" Scott groaned as the boys went to get themselves some tea.
That caused Rogue to giggle since it was actually pretty funny.
Meanwhile, Chelsea and Logan were sitting together after the blonde's brothers had to leave, which made her feel glum.
"Still feeling down?" The clawed mutant asked.
"Yeah… It felt so short a time…" The woman sighed.
"They'll come visit, trust me." The man told her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Tell you what, how about you and I go to a favorite local spot of mine, Hogan's Beers and Slogans. Help get your mind off things." He offered.
"Man, I could go for a beer right now." Chelsea sighed longingly. "Let's go." She nodded.
"Get your leather jacket on, we'll take my motorcycle." Logan told her as he got up.
"Right behind you." The woman nodded as she went to get her favorite jacket.
After she got it, the two headed out to grab some booze.
ThermalsniperN7: Okay… So Joshua not only met his aunt and uncle's superior, but he also got in his face and basically told him to shut up. He has balls of diamond, I swear…
Dragon Emperor0: Calvin was too. Things definitely were tense. Luckily though, things went well and on top of that, Chelsea reunited with her brothers. Those scenes always get me emotional, hopefully it will for you guys as well. Thermal, might as well let them know about the edit.
ThermalsniperN7: Right. After looking back at Chelsea's segments last chapter, we decided that it was too (for lack of a better term) poorly planned and executed. Not only that, we had another plan for them. We'll be redoing Chapter 5 with something that'll be more tolerable to read. We intend to try and be precise with how we do it, too.
Dragon Emperor0: This came after talking about them with Chelsea and the gang's creator, IceAge Mutant, who's a friend of ours and she told us that she preferred our original plan for the scene which—I'll be completely honest—I forgot about between planning everything else so we ended up going with something that was a seat of our pants plan, which wasn't as good, in hindsight. I'll admit.
ThermalsniperN7: So anyone who was dissatisfied with Chapter 5 of this story can expect it to look different by the time we're done with the rewrite. Anyway, see you guys next time.