Back to Gatefold#6 - "Children of a Lesser God - Part I"
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This story may contain scenes of graphic violence and sexual situations. It is recommended for mature readers.
Beijing, China. 10 June. 1300L.
The young couple held hands and smiled nervously at each other as they waited in the lobby of the doctor's office. They'd tried for so long, been to all the best doctors, popped both of their bodies full of drugs that were supposed to help. Now... the moment of truth. Their hope was almost as palpable as their fear of failure.
The phone behind the nurse's desk rang, and the couple jumped at the noise.
<"The doctor will see you now,">* the nurse said as she hung up the phone, plastic smile frozen in place and one arm beckoning toward the office door.
(* Translated from Chinese -- Russ)
The couple thanked her, gathered their things, and made their way down the short hallway to the office. The doctor was waiting there for them - a rail-thin man with distinguished features and wispy hair that was starting to go gray at the temples. He shook their hands, led them into the office, and gestured for them to take their seats. He dropped wearily into his own chair and flipped open a file before him.
<"I see you have been trying to conceive for a long time,"> he sighed.
<"Very long, sir,"> the young man agreed. The woman simply nodded.
<"Then it is my pleasure to inform you that you have succeeded,"> the doctor replied. He did not smile when he said this.
The young man seemed not to notice. <"That... that is wonderful news."> He looked to his wife for agreement. The doctor's stern demeanor had not slipped by her though, and she was watching him with something approaching panic.
<"What is it, doctor?"> she asked. <"Is something wrong with our child?">
<"I'm afraid so, yes."> The husband's face fell and the woman's jaw worked silently as she fought to control herself.
<"What--what is it?">
The doctor tapped the sheet of paper lying on top of the file before him. <"I'm sure you are aware of the population troubles in this country,"> he began. <"Too many of us jammed into too tight a space, and so it is standard to run certain prenatal tests to determine whether there will be any... problems with the child. This gives the parents the option to abort early before they have formed too strong an attachment to the fetus.">
<"What. Is wrong. With. My child?">
The doctor sighed. <"According to our tests, Ms. Yi, there is a 95% likelihood that the life you carry within you is a mutant.">
The father gasped and his eyes fell to the floor. The mother whispered <"no"> and began quietly to weep.
<"I understand what a shock this must be,"> the doctor soothed, leaning forward and lacing his fingers together on the desktop. <"The first thing you must understand is that this is not your fault. Though a popular theory points to radiation exposure in the parents as the catalyst, there is enough contrary evidence to prove that there is no definite cause for mutancy. You are free, of course, to give birth to the child, but you run the risk of it being either hideously deformed and unable to function in society, or perhaps possessing power of such danger and magnitude, that it would have to be exterminated upon birth."> The mother made a little cry of pain at that. The doctor winced, gathered himself, and leaned forward so that both of them in their varying states of disbelief and pain would be able to hear what he said next.
<"Fortunately,"> he said, <"there is an alternative.">
The island nation of Genosha. 10 June. 2300L.
Tabitha's body was tacky with sweat as she peeled herself off her young lover and collapsed at his side in a tangle of clean sheets.
"Mmm, 'Berto," she purred, nuzzling up to the junction of his throat and shoulder, "wanna give me a chance to recuperate this time, stud? I've gotta be able to walk tomorrow."
"As you wish," Roberto DaCosta said, slipping an arm around her and pulling her close. Their lips touched... then melted together hungrily as their blood began to boil again. Finally, when Roberto's free hand slipped beneath the sheet to touch her, she put a hand on his chest and pushed him away.
"I mean it," she said, scooting back a bit but not leaving his embrace. "Let me rest, damn it. At least get a glass of milk and a sandwich or something."
Bobby smirked good-naturedly and looked at the ceiling. "As you wish."
"I mean it."
"You already said that."
"And you already said that 'as you wish' crap. Somebody's been watching the Princess Bride too much."
"The who?"
"The Princess Bride." Tabitha propped herself up on her elbows and gave him a disbelieving look. "You know... 'I am Inyego Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die'... Dread Pirate Roberts... Is any of this ringing a bell?"
"No, Tabitha, I'm sorry."
"Christ, what was Professor X teaching you while you were with the New Mutants?"
Bobby's jaw set and Tabby saw immediately that she'd made a mistake. "I -- shit, I'm sorry, Bobby."
"No, don't be." He sat up in bed, his knees drawn up and his arms draped over them. "Professor Xavier was a great man. I'm sorry you didn't know him better."
"I knew him plenty."
"No," Bobby insisted, shaking his head. "Don't do that."
"Don't do what?"
"What you just did, dismissing the Professor. Just because we have chosen to follow Magneto does not mean we can forget all the Professor taught us."
"The sainted Professor taught you, remember? Not me. I was too busy running away from a bad home life and shacking up with all the wrong people to be part of your Baby X-Men."
Bobby sighed. "Perhaps this was a mistake..."
"What was a mistake?"
"Us." He turned to her. "Tell me, Tabitha, did you decide to toss yourself into my bed because you are attracted to me... or because I'm the leader of the Fallen Angels?"
"ExCUSE you??"
"You heard me. When we were in X-Force, it was Sam. Now that we're the Fallen Angels, it's me. Do you set out to bed team leaders or is it only a subconscious tendency?"
"You prick," she hissed, sliding out of bed and taking the sheet with her. This left Bobby naked, but he didn't mind. He watched without comment as she yanked on her clothes, dropping the sheet on the floor at the foot of the bed.
"I notice you haven't answered the question..." he said as she was reaching for the doorknob.
"You're lucky I had too much fun over the last two hours to throw a timebomb into your crotch." She walked out the door, slamming it behind her hard enough to shake the walls.
Roberto leaned his head back against the wall and sighed. Ask a simple question...
He got up and moved into the bathroom, splashing some water on his face and running a damp hand through his hair to smooth it. He had been too hard on Tabitha, he knew, but their relationship had advanced so quickly in the days since they'd returned from Buenos Aires... Perhaps it wouldn't have bothered him as much if she had shown any interest at all in him during their X-Force days. But no, she wouldn't have then... Sam Guthrie had been around after all.
Toweling off his head, he moved back into his bedroom... and cursed in alarm when he saw the redheaded woman standing there.
"Damn you Voght, don't you know how to use a door?" He picked the towel up where he had dropped it and used it to cover himself.
"Magneto would like to see you in his study, DaCosta."
"Now?"
"Now."
"Do you know what it's about?"
"Yes."
"But you're not going to tell me."
"Right."
"Fine. If I'm very polite to you, will you promise not to teleport into my room anymore?"
"No," Voght replied simply. "Anything else?"
"When do I get to see you naked?"
Amelia Voght didn't bother responding to that. In a flash of teleportational light, she was gone.
Sighing, Bobby moved to get dressed. What in the world could Magneto want at this time of night?
Shatterstar set his tray down and had a seat at the long table next to Harlan Kleinstock. The Acolyte looked up, gave him a curt nod, and went back to the discussion he was having with Shatterstar's teammate, Rictor.
"I swear to God," Rictor laughed, "I would kill for a Big Mac right now."
"Don't rule it out," the Kleinstock brother said around a mouthful of whatever the commissary's mystery meat was tonight. "Once we put the magistrate resistance down once and for all, Lord Magnus will have to start allowing more international trade. And hell, even Moscow has a McDonald's these days."
"Hey, 'Star," Rictor said, digging into his goulash. "What're you doing up at this hour?"
"Late workout."
"Hey, speaking of which, I've got to meet up with my brother for midnight patrol." Kleinstock stood, wiped his mouth with his napkin, and lifted his nearly-empty tray from the table. "Take it easy, Ric. Nice seein' ya, Shatterstar."
Shatterstar nodded in reply, and Kleinstock clumped off. When he was gone, Shatterstar grunted and tore a bite out of a slice of bread.
"I didn't know you were such good buddies with Kleinstock," he ventured.
"Ah, we've been talking a lot since Tabitha and I helped him out against the magistrates last week. While you and 'Berto were invading Avalon Tower." Rictor grinned, knowing the 'invasion' in question was a sore spot with Shatterstar.
But his teammate didn't take the bait, so Rictor changed the subject. "Have you heard anything new about Siena Blaze?"
"No, she's still in her coma, as far as I know. When Magneto used her powers to kickstart his own,* the process shut her mind down, and nobody can figure out how to bring her back."
(* See last issue -- Russ)
"Might be for the best," Rictor mused. "If she remembers who she is and gets all her power back..."
"Magneto doesn't seem to think she will get all her power back. He suffered a severe power loss when Joseph absorbed his power, and he expects the same thing to have happened to Blaze."
"But we'll never know if she doesn't wake up."
"Right."
Rictor seemed about to say something more, but he paused and looked at something above and behind his teammate's head. "Ah, shit..."
"What is it?" Shatterstar asked, turning as he spoke. "You look--"
"Hi, pretty-boy," Carmella Unuscione said, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She was standing directly behind Shatterstar, and at her back were her fellow Acolytes, Frenzy and Senyaka. "Remember me?"
When Shatterstar and Sunspot had invaded Avalon Tower days earlier, intent on saving Siena Blaze from whatever fate Magneto had planned for her, they'd been forced to take Carmella down. Hard. Both of them had successfully avoided the harridan ever since, but it looked like Shatterstar's luck had finally run out... and one look told him that reasoning with her was out of the question.
Rictor tried anyway. "Look, Unuscione, we can..."
A blocky green, translucent fist formed over Carmella's own extremity - an aspect of the psi-armor that was her mutant power - and she brought it down on the table between the two Fallen Angels. Rictor fell backward from the impact and Shatterstar just escaped sharing the table's fate by diving to the side.
Rictor regained his footing, slapped a hand to the floor beneath his feet, and activated his mutant powers, sending a shockwave through the tile. The entire floor rippled, and the two women, Unuscione and Frenzy, were thrown off their feet. Senyaka, meanwhile, had moved in on Shatterstar, burning whips extending from the Acolyte's gloves and encircling Shatterstar's throat. Rictor was about to move to help, but Shatterstar brought his hand around and buried his fork in Senyaka's thigh. The Acolyte let out a yelp, and 'Star used the distraction to slip free of the coils and put his booted foot in Senyaka's stomach.
Rictor heard a pounding of feet behind him and turned. Frenzy-a black woman, built like Schwarzeneggar-was charging him. Her fist barreled through the air at him and he fell back away from it. This probably saved his life, because instead of taking his head off, Frenzy's blow simply sent him flying across the room and onto a nearby, occupied tabletop. The world went black, and when Rictor opened his eyes again, he saw Tabitha Smith--Meltdown--hovering over him.
"You okay?" she was asking, her words slurred in Rictor's ears. He looked around and saw that the entire commissary had joined in the fight. Furniture and bodies flying every which way as mutants turned their powers on one another. Shatterstar, he was happy to see, was still in the fight, staying out of Unuscione's extended reach while he looked for an opening.
"You should sit this one out, Ric," Tabitha said, her hand gripping his arm as he began to climb down off the table.
"Do you plan to?"
Meltdown laughed. "No... actually this is a godsend. I'm itching for a fight."
"Then let's go show these guys what we can do."
"Sir? You asked to see me?"
"Yes. Come in, Roberto. Shut the door behind you."
Roberto did as he was told, letting the door swing shut and moving across the floor of the ornate office. Erik Magnus Lensherr, known to most of the world as Magneto, stood in front of a large window, looking out over Genosha's capital city of Hammer Bay. From this vantage, one could see fires burning in the city, fires that had obviously been built for light and warmth rather than destruction. Large portions of the city even had electric lighting now--an immense improvement over conditions when Magneto had been ceded control over Genosha mere months ago.
"I am ill at ease, Roberto."
"Why is that, sir?"
Magneto turned and studied his pupil closely, then crossed to his desk. He was wearing a gray business suit rather than the red cloak, bodysuit, and helmet that he'd made notorious over the years. The formalwear reminded Roberto of the years Magnus had served as the headmaster of the Xavier School, back when Roberto had been a New Mutant. Those days had been on his mind a lot lately, and the reminder, combined with the late hour, added to the surrealism of this interview.
"When I drew the power from Siena Blaze into myself, you and Shatterstar invaded Avalon. Why?"
"Because you hadn't told us what was happening, sir."
"You question my right to withhold information when I find it necessary?"
"In most cases, no." Roberto paused. He should have been shaking in his boots right now, but he was tired, and he was still pissed over the scene with Tabby. So he mustered his courage and pressed on. "But you sent us to collect Blaze without telling us who she was. I'm sure you knew about her amnesia, but we should have been told what we were walking into. If we had done something, in ignorance, to remind Blaze who she was, she might have killed half of Buenos Aires."
"But you didn't, and she didn't."
"Granted, sir... but after that... you can see why we may have been concerned about your plans for her."
"I had no idea you cared about Ms. Blaze, Roberto."
"I don't. But I do care that the man I only recently pledged my allegiance to wasn't being straight with me."
"You thought my plans for Siena may negatively impact you in some way?"
Roberto spread his hands. "I had no idea, sir. And after Buenos Aires, I decided we'd be better safe than sorry."
Magneto grunted and, still standing behind his desk, plucked up a newspaper and tossed it to his pupil. "Have you heard about this?"
The paper was from the States--Tampa, Florida, to be exact. The screaming headline filled a quarter of the front page: MUTANT TEEN KILLED IN STANDOFF WITH POLICE. Then, in smaller type below: Full Inquiry Into Police Actions to Begin Today.
"Scott Reinbeck had, apparently, the ability to manipulate strong emotion. When his powers manifested, he couldn't control them. He accelerated the anger of a group of police officers, and they gunned him down in the street."
Roberto shook his head and let the paper fall to his side. He didn't know what to say.
"Make no mistake, Roberto: this boy is now a martyr to our cause. You will hear Scott Reinbeck's name on the lips of every mutant activist in the world. And rightly so."
"What do you plan to do, sir?"
Magneto was silent for a moment, and when he spoke again, he replied to Roberto's question with one of his own.
"How dedicated are you to our cause, Roberto?"
"What the hell is this?"
Amelia Voght stood in the entrance to the commissary, watching Acolyte, Fallen Angel, and unaffiliated mutant alike trying to destroy each other and only succeeding in destroying the dining area. The cooks and other kitchen personnel were all cowering behind the food counter--those who hadn't joined in, anyway.
"Jesus..." She ducked as Shatterstar went flying overhead, nearly decapitating her as he passed. "Can't have this," she muttered. With a thought, every single body in the commissary--nearly thirty in all--vanished in their own teleportals.
Amelia gave a self-satisfied smile, turned to leave, and spotted Shatterstar propped up against the wall at her feet, only half-conscious. With a thought, she teleported him away too. Then she left, wondering if she could find a snack machine that worked.
"If my dedication wasn't complete, sir, I wouldn't have left behind everything and everyone I've ever cared about to join you."
Magneto gave Roberto a thin smile. He was pleased rather than amused, and that quelled the younger man's anger somewhat. "How would you feel about taking your Fallen Angels to the next level, then?"
Roberto was silent, waiting for his mentor to continue.
"Homo Superior needs freedom fighters, Roberto. Someone not tied down by a government mandate or a foolishly simplistic morality. Someone who is willing to take the battle to the bigots rather than protecting those same bigots."
"You mean terrorists. I thought the MLF had that covered."
Magneto scoffed. "The Mutant Liberation Front--besides being peopled by a horde of fools--is awash in its own corrupt politics and infighting. You should know that better than anyone."
Roberto was silent for a moment. His head spun with the implications of this conversation. Up until now, being a Fallen Angel had been little different from being a member of X-Force. But if Magneto was serious... this was a whole different ballgame. Agreeing to be a full-fledged mutant terrorist would make joining Magnus in the first place seem like a small thing indeed.
"What exactly do you have in mind, sir?"
Magneto smiled again and gestured toward the front of his desk. "Have a seat, Roberto. We have much to discuss."
Epilogue 1
Twenty-eight teleportals flashed to life, briefly lighting the sky above the waters of Hammer Bay, and dropped twenty-eight mutants nearly twenty feet into the ocean.
To say this caused more chaos would be understatement. Panicked at the unexpected change in locale, several energy projectors lashed out indiscriminately with their powers, taking down friend and foe alike. Flashpoint -- a recent arrival to Genosha who worked in the power restoration facilities -- lost concentration and turned into a bioelectric lightning bolt when he hit the water, electrocuting six nearby mutants.
Fortunately no one except for Flashpoint's victims lost consciousness. These were fished from the water before they could drown, and those mutants who couldn't fly began the long, grueling swim back towards shore. Not one of them had a single doubt who had dumped them here. Voght was well-known... though, after this, not well-liked.
So busy were the swimmers -- Rictor and Meltdown among them (Tabitha shouting, "I'm going to fucking kill that bitch!" between angry strokes) -- that no one saw another teleportal flash into existence several miles further toward the opening to the sea, closer to the beach. Shatterstar tumbled dazedly out of this portal, and when he hit the water, he briefly lost consciousness.
Stupid way to die, was his last thought as the darkness closed around his eyes and the water filled his lungs. Stupid, anticlimactic...
No one saw him wash onto shore several minutes later, and no one -- not even Shatterstar himself -- saw the shadowed men move stealthily up the beach toward him. The men argued amongst themselves in low voices for several minutes, then two of them finally stooped down and lifted the Fallen Angel's limp form in their arms.
Then they disappeared back down the beach, their unconscious charge still coughing up the water in his lungs.
Epilogue 2.
In a dark place, Maria Callasantos looked through rusting iron bars at the mouse she had imprisoned in this ancient, forgotten place. The mouse's eyes weren't as keen as hers, so it couldn't see her as she looked in on it, though less than four feet of floorspace separated the two. The mouse was a young homo sapien. Male, no more than fifteen years of age. Its eyes darted across the blinding darkness, desperately searching for something that would tell it where it was.
This was a game Maria -- the Fallen Angel known as Feral -- liked to play. If she stayed still... so, so still, as only she could... the stupid flatscan would never know she was there.
But that, of course, wouldn't be any fun.
Feral shifted a bit, making just enough noise to get the mouse's attention, to make him suspect someone was in this lightless hell with him. His eyes darted in her direction, then passed right over her without seeing.
"Is someone there?" he croaked. His body language was a mass of contradictions, as he reached out hopefully in her direction but also tried to push himself farther back into the stone wall at his back. Feral could smell the sharp tang of the mouse's urine as it soiled itself in fear. She enjoyed the smell.
"My name is Gerard Diesing," the mouse shakily explained. "Please, I don't know where I am. Please... just tell me how I got here."
Feral licked her lips and purred deep down in her throat.
Beijing, China. 10 June. 1300L.
The young couple held hands and smiled nervously at each other as they waited in the lobby of the doctor's office. They'd tried for so long, been to all the best doctors, popped both of their bodies full of drugs that were supposed to help. Now... the moment of truth. Their hope was almost as palpable as their fear of failure.
The phone behind the nurse's desk rang, and the couple jumped at the noise.
<"The doctor will see you now,">* the nurse said as she hung up the phone, plastic smile frozen in place and one arm beckoning toward the office door.
(* Translated from Chinese -- Russ)
The couple thanked her, gathered their things, and made their way down the short hallway to the office. The doctor was waiting there for them - a rail-thin man with distinguished features and wispy hair that was starting to go gray at the temples. He shook their hands, led them into the office, and gestured for them to take their seats. He dropped wearily into his own chair and flipped open a file before him.
<"I see you have been trying to conceive for a long time,"> he sighed.
<"Very long, sir,"> the young man agreed. The woman simply nodded.
<"Then it is my pleasure to inform you that you have succeeded,"> the doctor replied. He did not smile when he said this.
The young man seemed not to notice. <"That... that is wonderful news."> He looked to his wife for agreement. The doctor's stern demeanor had not slipped by her though, and she was watching him with something approaching panic.
<"What is it, doctor?"> she asked. <"Is something wrong with our child?">
<"I'm afraid so, yes."> The husband's face fell and the woman's jaw worked silently as she fought to control herself.
<"What--what is it?">
The doctor tapped the sheet of paper lying on top of the file before him. <"I'm sure you are aware of the population troubles in this country,"> he began. <"Too many of us jammed into too tight a space, and so it is standard to run certain prenatal tests to determine whether there will be any... problems with the child. This gives the parents the option to abort early before they have formed too strong an attachment to the fetus.">
<"What. Is wrong. With. My child?">
The doctor sighed. <"According to our tests, Ms. Yi, there is a 95% likelihood that the life you carry within you is a mutant.">
The father gasped and his eyes fell to the floor. The mother whispered <"no"> and began quietly to weep.
<"I understand what a shock this must be,"> the doctor soothed, leaning forward and lacing his fingers together on the desktop. <"The first thing you must understand is that this is not your fault. Though a popular theory points to radiation exposure in the parents as the catalyst, there is enough contrary evidence to prove that there is no definite cause for mutancy. You are free, of course, to give birth to the child, but you run the risk of it being either hideously deformed and unable to function in society, or perhaps possessing power of such danger and magnitude, that it would have to be exterminated upon birth."> The mother made a little cry of pain at that. The doctor winced, gathered himself, and leaned forward so that both of them in their varying states of disbelief and pain would be able to hear what he said next.
<"Fortunately,"> he said, <"there is an alternative.">
The island nation of Genosha. 10 June. 2300L.
Tabitha's body was tacky with sweat as she peeled herself off her young lover and collapsed at his side in a tangle of clean sheets.
"Mmm, 'Berto," she purred, nuzzling up to the junction of his throat and shoulder, "wanna give me a chance to recuperate this time, stud? I've gotta be able to walk tomorrow."
"As you wish," Roberto DaCosta said, slipping an arm around her and pulling her close. Their lips touched... then melted together hungrily as their blood began to boil again. Finally, when Roberto's free hand slipped beneath the sheet to touch her, she put a hand on his chest and pushed him away.
"I mean it," she said, scooting back a bit but not leaving his embrace. "Let me rest, damn it. At least get a glass of milk and a sandwich or something."
Bobby smirked good-naturedly and looked at the ceiling. "As you wish."
"I mean it."
"You already said that."
"And you already said that 'as you wish' crap. Somebody's been watching the Princess Bride too much."
"The who?"
"The Princess Bride." Tabitha propped herself up on her elbows and gave him a disbelieving look. "You know... 'I am Inyego Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die'... Dread Pirate Roberts... Is any of this ringing a bell?"
"No, Tabitha, I'm sorry."
"Christ, what was Professor X teaching you while you were with the New Mutants?"
Bobby's jaw set and Tabby saw immediately that she'd made a mistake. "I -- shit, I'm sorry, Bobby."
"No, don't be." He sat up in bed, his knees drawn up and his arms draped over them. "Professor Xavier was a great man. I'm sorry you didn't know him better."
"I knew him plenty."
"No," Bobby insisted, shaking his head. "Don't do that."
"Don't do what?"
"What you just did, dismissing the Professor. Just because we have chosen to follow Magneto does not mean we can forget all the Professor taught us."
"The sainted Professor taught you, remember? Not me. I was too busy running away from a bad home life and shacking up with all the wrong people to be part of your Baby X-Men."
Bobby sighed. "Perhaps this was a mistake..."
"What was a mistake?"
"Us." He turned to her. "Tell me, Tabitha, did you decide to toss yourself into my bed because you are attracted to me... or because I'm the leader of the Fallen Angels?"
"ExCUSE you??"
"You heard me. When we were in X-Force, it was Sam. Now that we're the Fallen Angels, it's me. Do you set out to bed team leaders or is it only a subconscious tendency?"
"You prick," she hissed, sliding out of bed and taking the sheet with her. This left Bobby naked, but he didn't mind. He watched without comment as she yanked on her clothes, dropping the sheet on the floor at the foot of the bed.
"I notice you haven't answered the question..." he said as she was reaching for the doorknob.
"You're lucky I had too much fun over the last two hours to throw a timebomb into your crotch." She walked out the door, slamming it behind her hard enough to shake the walls.
Roberto leaned his head back against the wall and sighed. Ask a simple question...
He got up and moved into the bathroom, splashing some water on his face and running a damp hand through his hair to smooth it. He had been too hard on Tabitha, he knew, but their relationship had advanced so quickly in the days since they'd returned from Buenos Aires... Perhaps it wouldn't have bothered him as much if she had shown any interest at all in him during their X-Force days. But no, she wouldn't have then... Sam Guthrie had been around after all.
Toweling off his head, he moved back into his bedroom... and cursed in alarm when he saw the redheaded woman standing there.
"Damn you Voght, don't you know how to use a door?" He picked the towel up where he had dropped it and used it to cover himself.
"Magneto would like to see you in his study, DaCosta."
"Now?"
"Now."
"Do you know what it's about?"
"Yes."
"But you're not going to tell me."
"Right."
"Fine. If I'm very polite to you, will you promise not to teleport into my room anymore?"
"No," Voght replied simply. "Anything else?"
"When do I get to see you naked?"
Amelia Voght didn't bother responding to that. In a flash of teleportational light, she was gone.
Sighing, Bobby moved to get dressed. What in the world could Magneto want at this time of night?
Shatterstar set his tray down and had a seat at the long table next to Harlan Kleinstock. The Acolyte looked up, gave him a curt nod, and went back to the discussion he was having with Shatterstar's teammate, Rictor.
"I swear to God," Rictor laughed, "I would kill for a Big Mac right now."
"Don't rule it out," the Kleinstock brother said around a mouthful of whatever the commissary's mystery meat was tonight. "Once we put the magistrate resistance down once and for all, Lord Magnus will have to start allowing more international trade. And hell, even Moscow has a McDonald's these days."
"Hey, 'Star," Rictor said, digging into his goulash. "What're you doing up at this hour?"
"Late workout."
"Hey, speaking of which, I've got to meet up with my brother for midnight patrol." Kleinstock stood, wiped his mouth with his napkin, and lifted his nearly-empty tray from the table. "Take it easy, Ric. Nice seein' ya, Shatterstar."
Shatterstar nodded in reply, and Kleinstock clumped off. When he was gone, Shatterstar grunted and tore a bite out of a slice of bread.
"I didn't know you were such good buddies with Kleinstock," he ventured.
"Ah, we've been talking a lot since Tabitha and I helped him out against the magistrates last week. While you and 'Berto were invading Avalon Tower." Rictor grinned, knowing the 'invasion' in question was a sore spot with Shatterstar.
But his teammate didn't take the bait, so Rictor changed the subject. "Have you heard anything new about Siena Blaze?"
"No, she's still in her coma, as far as I know. When Magneto used her powers to kickstart his own,* the process shut her mind down, and nobody can figure out how to bring her back."
(* See last issue -- Russ)
"Might be for the best," Rictor mused. "If she remembers who she is and gets all her power back..."
"Magneto doesn't seem to think she will get all her power back. He suffered a severe power loss when Joseph absorbed his power, and he expects the same thing to have happened to Blaze."
"But we'll never know if she doesn't wake up."
"Right."
Rictor seemed about to say something more, but he paused and looked at something above and behind his teammate's head. "Ah, shit..."
"What is it?" Shatterstar asked, turning as he spoke. "You look--"
"Hi, pretty-boy," Carmella Unuscione said, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She was standing directly behind Shatterstar, and at her back were her fellow Acolytes, Frenzy and Senyaka. "Remember me?"
When Shatterstar and Sunspot had invaded Avalon Tower days earlier, intent on saving Siena Blaze from whatever fate Magneto had planned for her, they'd been forced to take Carmella down. Hard. Both of them had successfully avoided the harridan ever since, but it looked like Shatterstar's luck had finally run out... and one look told him that reasoning with her was out of the question.
Rictor tried anyway. "Look, Unuscione, we can..."
A blocky green, translucent fist formed over Carmella's own extremity - an aspect of the psi-armor that was her mutant power - and she brought it down on the table between the two Fallen Angels. Rictor fell backward from the impact and Shatterstar just escaped sharing the table's fate by diving to the side.
Rictor regained his footing, slapped a hand to the floor beneath his feet, and activated his mutant powers, sending a shockwave through the tile. The entire floor rippled, and the two women, Unuscione and Frenzy, were thrown off their feet. Senyaka, meanwhile, had moved in on Shatterstar, burning whips extending from the Acolyte's gloves and encircling Shatterstar's throat. Rictor was about to move to help, but Shatterstar brought his hand around and buried his fork in Senyaka's thigh. The Acolyte let out a yelp, and 'Star used the distraction to slip free of the coils and put his booted foot in Senyaka's stomach.
Rictor heard a pounding of feet behind him and turned. Frenzy-a black woman, built like Schwarzeneggar-was charging him. Her fist barreled through the air at him and he fell back away from it. This probably saved his life, because instead of taking his head off, Frenzy's blow simply sent him flying across the room and onto a nearby, occupied tabletop. The world went black, and when Rictor opened his eyes again, he saw Tabitha Smith--Meltdown--hovering over him.
"You okay?" she was asking, her words slurred in Rictor's ears. He looked around and saw that the entire commissary had joined in the fight. Furniture and bodies flying every which way as mutants turned their powers on one another. Shatterstar, he was happy to see, was still in the fight, staying out of Unuscione's extended reach while he looked for an opening.
"You should sit this one out, Ric," Tabitha said, her hand gripping his arm as he began to climb down off the table.
"Do you plan to?"
Meltdown laughed. "No... actually this is a godsend. I'm itching for a fight."
"Then let's go show these guys what we can do."
"Sir? You asked to see me?"
"Yes. Come in, Roberto. Shut the door behind you."
Roberto did as he was told, letting the door swing shut and moving across the floor of the ornate office. Erik Magnus Lensherr, known to most of the world as Magneto, stood in front of a large window, looking out over Genosha's capital city of Hammer Bay. From this vantage, one could see fires burning in the city, fires that had obviously been built for light and warmth rather than destruction. Large portions of the city even had electric lighting now--an immense improvement over conditions when Magneto had been ceded control over Genosha mere months ago.
"I am ill at ease, Roberto."
"Why is that, sir?"
Magneto turned and studied his pupil closely, then crossed to his desk. He was wearing a gray business suit rather than the red cloak, bodysuit, and helmet that he'd made notorious over the years. The formalwear reminded Roberto of the years Magnus had served as the headmaster of the Xavier School, back when Roberto had been a New Mutant. Those days had been on his mind a lot lately, and the reminder, combined with the late hour, added to the surrealism of this interview.
"When I drew the power from Siena Blaze into myself, you and Shatterstar invaded Avalon. Why?"
"Because you hadn't told us what was happening, sir."
"You question my right to withhold information when I find it necessary?"
"In most cases, no." Roberto paused. He should have been shaking in his boots right now, but he was tired, and he was still pissed over the scene with Tabby. So he mustered his courage and pressed on. "But you sent us to collect Blaze without telling us who she was. I'm sure you knew about her amnesia, but we should have been told what we were walking into. If we had done something, in ignorance, to remind Blaze who she was, she might have killed half of Buenos Aires."
"But you didn't, and she didn't."
"Granted, sir... but after that... you can see why we may have been concerned about your plans for her."
"I had no idea you cared about Ms. Blaze, Roberto."
"I don't. But I do care that the man I only recently pledged my allegiance to wasn't being straight with me."
"You thought my plans for Siena may negatively impact you in some way?"
Roberto spread his hands. "I had no idea, sir. And after Buenos Aires, I decided we'd be better safe than sorry."
Magneto grunted and, still standing behind his desk, plucked up a newspaper and tossed it to his pupil. "Have you heard about this?"
The paper was from the States--Tampa, Florida, to be exact. The screaming headline filled a quarter of the front page: MUTANT TEEN KILLED IN STANDOFF WITH POLICE. Then, in smaller type below: Full Inquiry Into Police Actions to Begin Today.
"Scott Reinbeck had, apparently, the ability to manipulate strong emotion. When his powers manifested, he couldn't control them. He accelerated the anger of a group of police officers, and they gunned him down in the street."
Roberto shook his head and let the paper fall to his side. He didn't know what to say.
"Make no mistake, Roberto: this boy is now a martyr to our cause. You will hear Scott Reinbeck's name on the lips of every mutant activist in the world. And rightly so."
"What do you plan to do, sir?"
Magneto was silent for a moment, and when he spoke again, he replied to Roberto's question with one of his own.
"How dedicated are you to our cause, Roberto?"
"What the hell is this?"
Amelia Voght stood in the entrance to the commissary, watching Acolyte, Fallen Angel, and unaffiliated mutant alike trying to destroy each other and only succeeding in destroying the dining area. The cooks and other kitchen personnel were all cowering behind the food counter--those who hadn't joined in, anyway.
"Jesus..." She ducked as Shatterstar went flying overhead, nearly decapitating her as he passed. "Can't have this," she muttered. With a thought, every single body in the commissary--nearly thirty in all--vanished in their own teleportals.
Amelia gave a self-satisfied smile, turned to leave, and spotted Shatterstar propped up against the wall at her feet, only half-conscious. With a thought, she teleported him away too. Then she left, wondering if she could find a snack machine that worked.
"If my dedication wasn't complete, sir, I wouldn't have left behind everything and everyone I've ever cared about to join you."
Magneto gave Roberto a thin smile. He was pleased rather than amused, and that quelled the younger man's anger somewhat. "How would you feel about taking your Fallen Angels to the next level, then?"
Roberto was silent, waiting for his mentor to continue.
"Homo Superior needs freedom fighters, Roberto. Someone not tied down by a government mandate or a foolishly simplistic morality. Someone who is willing to take the battle to the bigots rather than protecting those same bigots."
"You mean terrorists. I thought the MLF had that covered."
Magneto scoffed. "The Mutant Liberation Front--besides being peopled by a horde of fools--is awash in its own corrupt politics and infighting. You should know that better than anyone."
Roberto was silent for a moment. His head spun with the implications of this conversation. Up until now, being a Fallen Angel had been little different from being a member of X-Force. But if Magneto was serious... this was a whole different ballgame. Agreeing to be a full-fledged mutant terrorist would make joining Magnus in the first place seem like a small thing indeed.
"What exactly do you have in mind, sir?"
Magneto smiled again and gestured toward the front of his desk. "Have a seat, Roberto. We have much to discuss."
Epilogue 1
Twenty-eight teleportals flashed to life, briefly lighting the sky above the waters of Hammer Bay, and dropped twenty-eight mutants nearly twenty feet into the ocean.
To say this caused more chaos would be understatement. Panicked at the unexpected change in locale, several energy projectors lashed out indiscriminately with their powers, taking down friend and foe alike. Flashpoint -- a recent arrival to Genosha who worked in the power restoration facilities -- lost concentration and turned into a bioelectric lightning bolt when he hit the water, electrocuting six nearby mutants.
Fortunately no one except for Flashpoint's victims lost consciousness. These were fished from the water before they could drown, and those mutants who couldn't fly began the long, grueling swim back towards shore. Not one of them had a single doubt who had dumped them here. Voght was well-known... though, after this, not well-liked.
So busy were the swimmers -- Rictor and Meltdown among them (Tabitha shouting, "I'm going to fucking kill that bitch!" between angry strokes) -- that no one saw another teleportal flash into existence several miles further toward the opening to the sea, closer to the beach. Shatterstar tumbled dazedly out of this portal, and when he hit the water, he briefly lost consciousness.
Stupid way to die, was his last thought as the darkness closed around his eyes and the water filled his lungs. Stupid, anticlimactic...
No one saw him wash onto shore several minutes later, and no one -- not even Shatterstar himself -- saw the shadowed men move stealthily up the beach toward him. The men argued amongst themselves in low voices for several minutes, then two of them finally stooped down and lifted the Fallen Angel's limp form in their arms.
Then they disappeared back down the beach, their unconscious charge still coughing up the water in his lungs.
Epilogue 2.
In a dark place, Maria Callasantos looked through rusting iron bars at the mouse she had imprisoned in this ancient, forgotten place. The mouse's eyes weren't as keen as hers, so it couldn't see her as she looked in on it, though less than four feet of floorspace separated the two. The mouse was a young homo sapien. Male, no more than fifteen years of age. Its eyes darted across the blinding darkness, desperately searching for something that would tell it where it was.
This was a game Maria -- the Fallen Angel known as Feral -- liked to play. If she stayed still... so, so still, as only she could... the stupid flatscan would never know she was there.
But that, of course, wouldn't be any fun.
Feral shifted a bit, making just enough noise to get the mouse's attention, to make him suspect someone was in this lightless hell with him. His eyes darted in her direction, then passed right over her without seeing.
"Is someone there?" he croaked. His body language was a mass of contradictions, as he reached out hopefully in her direction but also tried to push himself farther back into the stone wall at his back. Feral could smell the sharp tang of the mouse's urine as it soiled itself in fear. She enjoyed the smell.
"My name is Gerard Diesing," the mouse shakily explained. "Please, I don't know where I am. Please... just tell me how I got here."
Feral licked her lips and purred deep down in her throat.