Subject: [OTL]: (alt. Pryde/Wisdom/Marvelverse) Recoil Chapter 4B/12 (R) Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 17:15:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Recoil Chapter 4B by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: Jake and Jesse are mine. The rest are Marvel's. It's all fiction. No money is being made off of this. Etc. WARNING: Strong language, violence, thematic elements, imagery. ------------------------------------------------------- 6/5/2004: 15:50 hrs EDT: X-Mansion Medlab: ------------------------------------------------------- He stepped from the shadows into the waiting room, then smiled weakly as his elder children gathered round. "Dad! Is Uncle Alex OK? And Aunt Lorna? I-is Forge really ...?" Rachel asked, fighting back tears as Scott let the teenage girl hug him. "Your uncle's holding on, Ray. Lorna should be OK in a few days. Forge ... he and Mystique are dead. I'm sorry, but there's no other way to put it," Scott sighed. "Oh God. Ororo freaked out earlier, but actually hearing it from you - no offense, Dad, but I think she was holding some kind of hope," Jake said as he and Nate walked over. "We do tend to defy death, don't we?" Scott replied, shaking Jake's offered hand after hugging Nate. "I'm glad to see you back, Jake. And ... I'm sorry about how your mother and I kept denying that you were human. I was a hypocrite, fighting for the Professor's ideals and denying my own son ..." "Hey, this is a no-angst zone, OK?" Jake tried to joke. His cocky smile vanished as he added, "Seriously ... I'm sorry I ran off like I did. And ... there's something else you need to know - I brought someone back with me -" "Scott?" Jake breathed a sigh of relief, as Jean walked out of the infirmary area and let Scott hold her for a long moment. "I'm not cleared to leave the medlab yet, but I'm doing a lot better - mostly because someone is back and being checked over by Hank," Jean said, her smile growing as Scott traded his visor for his ruby quartz glasses and followed her into the main exam room. The X-Men's original field leader tried not to break down as he saw Jesse, wearing an unzipped skinsuit that was peeled back to his waist, sitting on the edge of an exam table and being scanned by Hank. "Dad!" Jesse cheered. The little boy's face immediately shifted as he said, "I-I'm sorry 'bout Uncle Alex ..." Scott ignored Hank's raised eyebrow as he grabbed his youngest son and hugged him. "He'll be OK. It'll all be OK now ... oh GOD, Jess, I'm sorry. I should've been there ..." Scott rasped, trying not to sob. He sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at Jesse, trying not to flinch at the still-ugly scar on the left side of the boy's upper chest. He ran a hand across Jesse's shaved head and looked closely at the long scar near his son's left temple, then peered behind Jesse's ears and winced at the semi-circular scars behind each one. "You can hear?" Scott asked Jesse as he looked him in the eye again. "Uh-huh. Sin'ster put stem cells in my ears," Jesse explained, suddenly looking afraid. "Hey, I'm not mad at you! I'm glad you can hear again, really. I ... I'm just mad at Sinister, even if he did save you - he should've let us fix your hearing. And I'm mad at me, because even though I couldn't protect you or your mom, I should've," Scott said, giving Jesse a regretful look. "But you looked for me, Dad. It's not your fault I got shot an' Mom got hurt. It's the bad guy's fault. Please, don't be sad?" Jesse pleaded. Scott hugged him again and just held him, as Jean sat beside them and hugged them both. "Ahem. Far be it from me to interrupt a family moment, but ... I have the results of the tests. First, Jesse definitely is Jesse - he's not a clone or other replicant. Second, Sinister was actually honest - there are no cybernetic implants, genetic alterations or other changes to Jesse, other than the stem cells," Hank said. Jean shot him a dark look and growled, "For God's sake, Hank, I could've told you that. A mother knows her own child. It's fine to be thorough, but you actually thought Jesse was a Trojan horse or something?" Hank looked hurt, but said gently, "Jean, I hated to even ask the question, but Sinister was the one who saved his life. We had to be sure." Jesse gulped as he looked at his parents, then Hank. "B-but - I'm not a horse. An' I don't wanna hurt anyone," he said. "I know, Jesse. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. It's just that sometimes, villains use people we care about to hurt us, and I just wanted to be sure you were all right," Hank said. "For God's sake, McCoy, if I'd wanted to use the boy, I'd've force-aged him and programmed him to be a Marauder. Even I do have some actual morality, regardless of what I've done in the past." Hank snarled, Jesse gasped, Scott tensed, Jean shielded herself and her menfolk, and the other Summers children bolted into the medlab as a tesseract portal opened, admitting Nathaniel Essex into the room. "Before anyone decides to blast me into a wall or start cursing at me, let me make one thing clear: I am not here to cause a fight," Sinister rumbled, pulling up a chair and sitting down. "After you tried to haul me off and use me for a stud!?" Jake snarled as he drew his pistols. "Jacob, holster those things, NOW! This is a medlab, not a target range!" Hank ordered. "Do what he says, Jake. I want to take out Sinister as well, but - wait a minute. You tried to use Jake in a breeding experiment?" Scott demanded. "This isn't the time, Scott. Ah - the angry, defiant and ready-to-shoot welcoming committee," Sinister sighed as Xavier, Ororo, Bishop, Warren and the Cameron siblings emerged from a teleportal. "Stand down, X-Men. Although I wish you'd come to my office first, Sinister, I suppose this will do as well as any place," Xavier said in a tired voice. The X-Men and the Summers kids looked at Xavier in surprise as the telepath added, "I invited Sinister here to discuss his involvement in Black Womb. I doubt that his ... disturbing ... involvement with the 'Black Womb' crimes of Victorian Britain and my memory of something at Alamagordo called 'Black Womb' are just a coincidence." Sinister gave a dark little chuckle before replying, "Your father would be proud, Charles." "Goddess, no - Sinister, what are you insinuating?" Ororo demanded, before Jean caught her eye and gave her friend a pleading look. "Why, my dear windrider, haven't you all figured it out yet?" Sinister said, smiling his shark-tooth grin again. "You, as well as your dear mentor, and many of the X-Men, were foretold thanks to the work Brian Xavier, Kurt Marko, Alex Ryking, Amanda Mueller, Irene Adler and I did at Alamagordo. "And dear Brian's diary is the key to unlocking all of those dirty little secrets ... unless I decide to share. Considering that we have a mutual foe, I believe the time is right to talk of many, MANY things ..." ------------------------------------------------------- Sharon Kelly Memorial Hospital, Washington, D.C.: Morgue: 16:00 hrs EDT: ------------------------------------------------------- "Ya shouldn't be here." "Try and stop me. You're ready to collapse, and I'm not an infant anymore. You need me, especially since Remy's off doing Eternal knows what." "There is a God, Charlie." "Not in my worldview, Mom. I'm here, I'm now, and I'm not going to abandon you." Marie LeBeau gave her firstborn - and as of yet, only - child a tired, warm smile. Charles Xavier Lehnsherr had grown into a caring, tall and more mature teen after his troubled 13th summer, posing as a Chinese mutant healer calling himself "Xorn." #He's stronger, more sure o'himself. Part o'that, too, was him telling Erik off ...but he's recognized that he needs people. An' ah need someone mahself,# the former power-stealing Rogue thought as she walked into the morgue with her son. Chuck pushed brown hair out of his blue eyes and steeled himself; the odors in the room were already unsettling. Two white-clad attendants walked over from where two sheet-covered bodies were stretched out on slabs at the far end of the room. The fact that the walls were lined with what looked like metal filing cabinet drawers wasn't lost on either mother or son. "Mrs. LeBeau, are you sure your son should be here?" the coroner, Patrice Delavan, said as she watched Marie and Chuck approach the first body. "I am not a weak-willed, spineless human adolescent, Madame Coroner. I'm stronger than that. Please spare me your condescension and let's get this over with so that my mother can grieve in peace. And don't talk about me as if I were absent," Chuck said in his best "I-Am-Magneto's-Son-You-Filthy-Flatscan" voice. "Charles, be polite. Ms. Delavan's just tryin' to be sensitive," Marie ordered. Chuck squeezed her hand in his, and for the millionth time, Marie was glad that Erik Lehnsherr had genetically altered her powers years ago. #Bein' a magnakinetic instead o' power-siphonin' means ah can have flesh-t'-flesh contact with mah loved ones. 'Specially when ah need it,# Marie thought, swallowing hard as the coroner pulled back the edge of the first sheet - the one covering the body of her foster mother, Mystique. Everyone present gasped, except for Marie, who closed her eyes. And laughed - first, just a snicker, then a guffaw, and finally a raucous belly laugh accompanied by tears. "O - o'-course - AHAHAHAHAHA - ah sh'-should've known," Marie chuckled, composing herself as she reached into the head of the "corpse" and pulled out a shattered CPU. "Robots ...?" Delavan asked, as Chuck checked underneath the sheet covering "Forge" and held up a ruined artificial eye. "Life Model Decoys. SHIELD issue, able to replicate almost any known parahuman ability. Between the foremost mutant inventor and the deadliest mutant spy-assassin alive, we should've realized that Forge and Grandma Raven would be able to cheat death," Chuck said with a growing smile. "They're prob'ly underground now, huntin' the shooter who attacked X-Factor. Madame Coroner, ah'd be obliged if ya'd keep this quiet for now - we'll inform the people who need tellin'. C'mon, Charlie - let's go share some good news with the others," Marie said as she turned and led Chuck out of the morgue. #O'course, that begs the question - Momma, where ARE you an' Forge?# Marie thought. #An' where's Remy?# ------------------------------------------------------- Department H Headquarters, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 16:15 hrs EDT: ------------------------------------------------------- "I'm sorry, folks, but we don't know anything about Brian Xavier or his ties to Lord Dark Wind." "We appreciate your time, Mr. Hudson," Kitty replied, still feeling apprehensive as she watched James Hudson flinch a bit behind his desk. It had taken 15 minutes just to get through security, and Kitty was unclear on just why - she, Pete, Lockheed, Illyana and certainly Logan were all on the list of visitors Alpha Flight were willing to allow to visit. #Unless something happened since the last time we visited ...# Kitty thought from the couch in James Hudson's main office. The founder of Alpha Flight sighed, then met his wife's gaze. "Mac, we need to come clean," Heather Hudson - AKA Vindicator - said, crossing her arms as she looked intently at Guardian. "'Bout what, Heather?" Logan asked from one of the easy chairs. Pete - sitting next to Kitty - shifted uncomfortably, while Illyana traded a worried look with Kitty. Guardian unlocked one of his desk drawers, then pulled out a scorched book and tossed it to Logan. "It's all there, Logan. We only came across it during a security sweep of an old mining town, when we were looking for ... Logan, there's no easy way to say this. Sabretooth's back and he's gone psychotic again," Guardian sighed. "Hell, we knew 'bout Creed from Jake Summers - he an' Monty Bonepicker's crew woke Madelyne Pryor up, an' she was the one who was keepin' Creed sane," Logan grunted as he looked in the book. His eyes widened as he looked at the Hudsons. "T-this -" Logan stammered - and Kitty's gut started to scream, Logan never reacted like this - "Was the diary of your childhood friend, Rose. The girl hired to be your playmate ... James Howlett," Heather said, wiping her eyes. "It's all there, Logan. Someone tried to destroy the diary, but most of it's preserved there. You are the heir to an old-money logging family who were ... decimated by a psychotic hired hand. The manifestation of your claws caused you to have your first amnesiac episode ... and later, you accidentally killed Rose. I'm sorry you had to learn now in the middle of a crisis," James said, looking at the floor. Logan fainted. "WOLVIE!? 'Yana, get us home, now - thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Hudson, but we have to run !" Kitty yelled as Illyana teleported them back to the X-Mansion. They reappeared just as Sinister stood and looked at them. "Oh, bloody shite. Xavier, why'd you hafta invite the Mengele-addict over?" Pete growled. "I'm not happy about it either, Peter - why is Logan unconscious?" Xavier asked as Bishop helped Pete and Warren lift Logan to a medbed. "The diary he's carrying is supposed to be from his first girlfriend, but that's not important right now. What is important is that you come clean, Sinister - how much do you know about Brian Xavier?" Kitty demanded, glaring over at the geneticist. Sinister smiled darkly and began to speak. Just as Jean scream-snarled, "WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE!?" "I could ask that of Tall, Dark and Goth there, but I suppose this is a day for weird alliegances," the red-haired woman at the entrance to the exam room growled back. "Oh, boy ..." Kitty breathed. "Madelyne?" ------------------------------------------------------- tbc ... -------------------------------------------------------