X-men 2099UG #13

“In the cell, mutant.” The officer’s words were gruff and unforgiving as he shoved Luna into the cramped prison cell. Luna growled, but made no motion to strike back at the officer. The inhibitor cuffs covered her hands, locking them together behind her back. She stumbled forward, feeling her legs wobble as she did. She felt so weak…it only made her angrier.

“Looks like a full house,” Tim said in a droll way as the officer behind him tapped his stun baton impatiently. Tim’s hands were also bound by inhibitor cuffs. Him and Luna had put up no resistance to the officers back at the hotel. Tim had to constantly remind himself of his political position now. The leader of X-men couldn’t be seen busting up local precincts. At least not yet. He was waiting to see where the situation went.

“There’s always room for a few more,” the officer behind Tim muttered. He pointed his stun baton in the direction of the cell’s open door. “In.”

The black metal door slid heavily shut as Tim entered. The cell was small, holding only four people, including Luna and himself. Harsh yellow light was the only illumination. The walls were painted pitch black to give the impression of thick cast iron walls. Tim knew the murky, depressing atmosphere of the cell was intentional, meant to sap the energy and spirit of the common criminal.

One of his cellmates was huddled and shaking in the corner. The man’s hair was disheveled and his clothes were wrinkled and dirty. There were ugly purple bruises all over his skin. He was emaciated and bone thin, he looked one step away from death. “What’s with him?”, Tim asked aloud.

“Shriek withdrawal,” the other cellmate answered, a massively built black man who sat calmly in the corner. His entire upper body was covered in multi-colored tattoos that all ran into each other, creating one large continuous tattoo. The only thing covering them was a dirty brown vest. He looked like a living kaleidoscope.

“Geez, how long? It looks severe…,”

The black man laughed. “A while. He tried to mug someone for cash so he could get more shriek. Trouble was he was so out of it he mugged an on-duty cop.”

“He better not look up, then,” Luna commented as she sat down on a bench across from the addict. Seeing Luna was liable to give the poor addict a heart attack.

Tim sat down next to Luna. “What about you?”, he asked the tattooed man.

The man smiled. “Me? I’m innocent.” The man nodded at the inhibitor cuffs on Tim and Luna. “Mutants, huh?”

“Nah, we were caught illegally scratching,” Tim joked, a wide smirk on his face. “How long have you been in here?”

“This is day five, I think. It’s hard to make out because of the lack of windows in here.”

“Five days? Why have they held onto you so long?”, Luna asked.

“This precinct’s captain has a deal with a red market concern nearby. Prisoners with no records, like me and the spaz over there,” the man nodded at the addict in the corner. “Are kept quietly under the lid until pick-up. And you two…the police captain’s sitting on a goldmine with you two.”

Tim was surprised. “He can’t exactly sell us out. We’re X-men. There’s a whole city that’d notice our absence.”

The man snorted. “Nobody takes Halo City seriously, X-man. Everyone’s waiting to see when it’s going to nuke itself. There’s a running bet pool in Vega…well, Reno anyway. Everyone had a good laugh when your touted Messiah turned out to be a fake.”

Luna could smell the anger and disappointment coming from Tim, along with something that always tickled her nose. Ever since they had freed Book from the Quezalcoatl Corp.*** he carried a different scent. It was tinged with something sharp, almost like his scent had an electric current running through it as well.

*** X-men 2099 (regular series) #31

Tim was keeping his face straight, but Luna knew what he was feeling. She was half-expecting it, to tell the truth. She was worried that Tim thought that the very creation of Halo City magically made everything better for mutants in the world. When they left Halo, she was hoping he wasn’t really so naļve. Had he honestly expected a higher level of tolerance and understanding from these simple humans? Or did he just refuse to accept their idiotic prejudices, now that he had a mutant city to run back home to?

“So we get sold, sliced, and diced, and the news reports say we died in a tragic accident?”, Tim asked.

“I would assume so.”

“The X-men would investigate that, they have to realize that,” Tim countered.

“Do the X-men know where you are? Are you alone here? Why are you even in a backwater like El Paso? People disappear here all the time. Who’s to say your X-men would ever find anything? The trail would vanish here. The red market concern would since be up and gone, moved elsewhere. Shock, maybe they WANT the X-men to come after you. They’d net themselves a fortune.”

“We’re not alone here, actually. We came with someone else.”

“I wonder what cell he’s in, then,” the man responded.

Tim’s hope for escaping fell even lower as the tattooed man spoke. Where was the Driver, anyhow? Had he been taken along with them? Maybe before the whole incident at the hotel had happened?*** The door to the Driver’s room had never opened, even as the police were hauling him and Luna away. They should never have gone quietly. Tim had urged Luna to do so, in the interest of diplomacy, to send the impression that mutants weren’t outlaws and troublemakers. Fat lot of good that had done them. Tim was seriously considering rethinking the whole diplomacy policy…

***Last issue

Luna stopped paying attention to Tim and the tattooed man as they continued to banter. Tim wasn’t finding out anything particularly useful. The man was deliberately hazy on why he was in the cell with them, but that was to be expected from most criminals. Instead, she found herself focusing on the addict in the corner. At times he would stop shaking, not moving and never looking up, as if he were dead. Then a slow shiver would creep into him and he’d have another episode. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. Her fingers flexed and twitched inside the inhibitor cuffs. The hunger knawed inside her. Even as weak as she felt, the edge wouldn’t leave her. She tried to push the hunger and the want down, push it away, but it was getting to be too big. Her teeth were clenched tight and she dug her nails into her fist. The addict shook in the corner, the pain of his withdrawal clearly evident. She could smell it in the air. She stared and stared at him. If only the inhibitor cuffs weren’t on her…if only…

*     *     *

Six hours. It had taken them only six hours from their arrival in El Paso to incarceration. It was ridiculous. How could those mutants have possibly created something like Halo City without since blowing it to pieces? These were the purported caretakers of mutantkind? The Driver still couldn’t believe the carelessness of the two X-men he had allied himself with. If those two were the moral zenith of mutants, then the whole race was better off in the Accelerator.

The Nitroburn circled the the town of El Paso on autopilot as the Driver mulled over the situation. The vehicle seemed to pick up on the Driver’s annoyance through the technopathic link he had with the car. It sped up whenever the Driver’s attention lapsed.

What was his next course of action? He had awoken in the hotel when he heard the crash from two doors down. He slipped outside his room just as that La Lunatica women was slipping into their neighbor’s suite. He couldn’t comprehend what she was doing. If she was trying to steal from their neighbors then she was doing a lousy job of it. Perhaps she was really was nothing more than an animal acting civilized. He wondered if her boyfriend Fitzgerald knew. In any case, it had only taken a second to realize the kind of trouble that would be arriving. He quickly slipped out of the hotel, locking the door and chucking the pass key inside as it closed. The time it would take for the authorities to bust in would give him more than enough space to leave in the Nitroburn.

So now what? He had tuned into the police band as soon as he left the hotel garage. The two X-men, puzzlingly, had decided to turn themselves in. They were being held at the hotel district’s precinct. Perhaps the young Fitzgerald had thought his status as the leader of Halo City’s Protectorate would garner him fair and equitable treatment. He was a fool if he believed so. In all likelihood, they needed rescuing.

But should he? They were obviously not the most dependable allies. And leading them to Avalon was a mistake waiting to happen. He could wait until morning and go on without them. He would go to Broken Haiku and receive his answer. But then what? There was that uncertainty now. He did not have the resources to implement the Day of Reformation. And he could not see himself hijacking the equipment he would need. And if he somehow could? Where would they all go? He did not have the mind for that anymore. The X-men’s intrusion on his Garage and the destruction of the Accelerator had broken his sanity. And former president Doom’s hijacking of his very mind had not helped matters.*** He would not be able to lead the mutants he would ressurect.

***Doom 2099 (regular series) #37

Sighing, the Driver accepted the situation. He could not deny the X-men’s help any longer. He would have to rescue Fitzgerald and Luna. He let the knowledge sink in. He had fought for mutants and their future for his entire life. Perhaps it was time he passed the torch on.

*     *     *

“No no no, you see that little slot on the bridge that locks the cuffs together?”, the tattooed man explained. “The guard or the captain or somebody has the card key that slides into that and unlocks the cuffs.”

Luna banged her cuffs gently against the wall, testing it. “What are they made of?”

“I don’t know, plastics and circuitry, I guess. Does it matter? You can’t break them anyway,” the man answered.

“I know,” Luna said. “They explode if any of the circuit connections are severed. I’m just curious, I’m not going to really try and break them. I’ve lost enough hands already.”

“Plastics, you said?”, Tim asked.

“Alloys, I’m guessing. Light, easy to make, harder to break,” the tattooed man answered.

“Easier to melt, though.” Luna turned her head to Tim. “If you could get a finger outside the cuffs, Tim, do you think you could short the cuffs out?”

“I don’t think it works that way. The cuffs send an electromagnetic current through the body that inhibits the X-factor gene. It doesn’t matter if I get a finger free as long as the cuffs are still on me and active,” Tim replied.

“Besides, there’s nothing here that’s hot enough to melt with,” the tattooed man said.

Luna looked up at the yellow light panels in the ceiling. “I was thinking we could use the heat from the bulbs to do that.” She stared at the light for a little while longer. Suddenly, her face lit up. "I’ve got it! We can disrupt the frequencey of the current the cuffs use.”

The tattooed man looked interested. “How?”

Luna nodded at Tim, motioning up at the light. “Tim, you’d have to break the light and electrocute yourself.”

“Wha…? Me?”

“It’s the obvious choice,” Luna said. “As soon as you start getting electrocuted, absorb the power from the cuffs to disarm the explosives, and then blow those bastards off your hands.”

“What if the explosive trigger is still active even with no power in the cuffs?”, Tim asked.

“Then we’ll still have our powers back, at least.”

Tim looked a little frightened. “Alright,” Tim said as he stood up on the bench, looking up at the nearest light. “Here goes nothing, then.”

With a soft VVVVVVVVT, the Nitroburn slid into the cell. Tim, in mid-swing, fell off the bench in surprise. Luna and the tattooed man got up defensively. The addict in the corner looked up, stared at it intently with his wide bloodshot eyes, then turned away again.

Tim scrambled off the floor as the Nitroburn rippled and solidified. The car barely fit into the cell. “Come on,” the Driver said anxiously as he stuck his out of the door.

Tim sneered at the tattooed man. “Told ya so.”

Luna raised the cuffs on her hands. “What about these?”, she asked.

The Driver frowned a little, thinking. “Here,” he said as he closed the door. “Rest the cuffs on the hood.”

Tim and Luna edged around the room and placed their inhibitor cuffs on the hood. Within a second, the cuffs themselves rippled and fell right through their hands. Both Luna and Tim yelped as the phased cuffs passed through, rubbing their hands to soothe the sudden pain. The cuffs clattered onto the floor and Luna kicked them into the corner.

The Driver’s door opened again. “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

“Wait a second…,” Tim said. “We can’t leave these two here. The police captain’s going to sell them off to the meat market. And that guy in the corner needs some serious help.” Tim pointed at the shriek addict.

The Driver looked back at the thin man huddled in the corner. “Alright, but be quick about it. I’d like to avoid a fight with the guards.”

Luna felt relieved when Tim went over to the addict. With her powers returned, she didn’t know if she could resist feeding on his pain. All it would take was a touch and she was sure she’d give in. She quickly turned her head to the tattooed man. “What about you?”

The tattooed man sat back down. “I’ll stay, thanks.”

“What?”, Tim exclaimed as he carried the oddly-silent addict to the Nitroburn. “They’re gonna chop you to pieces, man, get in the car!”

The tattooed man smiled. “I wasn’t lying when I told you I was innocent.” He rested his arms behind his head and leaned back onto the wall.

“You want to be taken to this red market concern, don’t you? You have a score to settle,” Luna stated.

Tim slid the addict gently into the back of the Nitroburn. “You’re a plant?”

“Something like that,” the man answered. “Not every hero is super-powered.”

Luna snorted. “Whatever. You’re just after them because they owe your employer some money before they went into hiding. Or something like that.”

“Maybe. Either way the concern’s going down, so what do you care?”

“We don’t have time to discuss this,” the Driver said to Luna and Tim. “Let’s go.”

The Driver powered up the Nitroburn as Luna and Tim slid inside. The car became insubstantial once more as they closed the door behind them. With another VVVVVVVT, they were out of the prison and back out into the early morning air.

“We should get this guy to a clinic, we’ll charge the fees on my Halo account,” Tim said as he watched over the addict. The man seemed to be taking the whole situation remarkably well. Tim chalked it up to plain weirdness on the shriek addict’s part. He was shaking an awful lot for just shriek withdrawal though. Tim reasoned the addict wasn’t into just one drug.

“You came back for us,” Luna said, peering at the Driver from the passenger seat.

“We have an agreement,” the Driver stated simply. “And besides, I wasn’t as eager as you two in being captured by the El Paso police. What were you thinking in busting into the neighbor’s suite?”

Tim turned his attention towards Luna. “I was going to ask the same once things calmed down.”

Luna’s face became defensive. “It wasn’t me. Besides…” Her voice became soft. “…I don’t have the strength for that anymore.”

“What?”, Tim said, confused.

“I wasn’t the one who shattered the door or attacked those people,” Luna explained, obviously edgy. “It was someone else. I was coming back to the room, walking up the stairs to the hallway on our floor when I heard some soft footsteps. Someone was going out of their way not to make any noise, so I decided to investigate. I crouched down and stayed low in the stairwell. Suddenly I heard this groaning sound. Whoever it was had bent the door entry mechanism on the door completely and forced it in.”

“And meanwhile I continue to sleep,” Tim said.

“I heard screams coming from the room, but I stayed low because I saw one of the hotel’s protector guards rushing into the room,” Luna continued. “I remember thinking that the guard must have already been on the floor to respond so quickly. Shortly I heard him scream, as well. That’s when I broke into a dead run towards the room. No sooner had I reached the doorway when someone burst out of the room like a flash. Whoever it was knocked me hard into the wall. It hurt so much that I was even crying over the pain.”

“That’s not like you,” Tim said.

“Tim,” Luna paused. “I haven’t fed on the pain of someone since that whole Galactus thing***. And before that I had gone even longer without feeding. With all the fighting in between and the trauma of losing a hand, it’s drained me. My strength depends on the pain I absorb from others. But I’ve gone so long and pushed myself so hard…it’s just…I feel weak everyday.” Luna’s face was crestfallen. Even so, a part of her felt good to have the fact out in the open now. She had been trying so hard lately to cover it up. To not show it, to give it her all in a fight, to keep up her tough exterior.

*** The Coming of Galactus 2099UG #3

“And you haven’t been feeding because of me and the X-men…shock…,” Tim exclaimed quietly. “We have to get back to Halo. Shakti…or someone…should check this out. Maybe we can find some way…”

“No, it’s not that large a problem. It’s just that at this point…I’m probably just as frail as any human.”

“Man…we’ll have to avoid any fights from now on then,” Tim said.

Luna suddenly became angry. “No!”, she stated adamantly. “I’m not going to be treated like some invalid because of this. If I catch either of you pampering me or pushing me behind you…I’ll rip your throats out. Got it?”

Tim smiled. “Heh heh, got it.”

The Driver’s face remained calm, if perhaps a bit paler. “You need not worry about that from me.”

“Who was this other person that knocked you down in the hotel room, though?”, Tim asked.

“Right, that. I didn’t get much of a glimpse of her. She was running off as I got up, but there’s one thing that gives her away completely. Her skin was completely blue. This light aqua/turquoise tone. She had short hair. Shorter than mine anyway, that was the same color. Straight and down to just above her shoulders.”

“Sounds like we’re dealing with another mutant. Or someone who fell into some blue paint…and kept falling and falling,” Tim joked.

“Definitely a mutant, judging by the force she hit me with,” Luna offered. “After that I went into the room to check out what had happened. I found the body on the floor there and that’s when you came in.”

“And now we’re back to here. Why would a mutant break into their suite and knock them unconscious, only to flee?” Tim wondered.

“She probably had more in mind, but scrammed when the guard showed up. Leaving me holding the bag,” Luna scowled.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Tim said to himself.

“Perhaps you two were the real targets and the mutant simply got the wrong room?”, the Driver offered. “This seems like you’re kind of trouble, anyway.”

“In any case, this mystery mutant has my attention,” Tim said. “I think we should look for her while the Driver meets with Broken Haiku.

“In a city this size? With our newfound status as prison escapees?”, Luna said.

“Does that mean you want to be held back from the search?”, Tim taunted.

Luna growled at him. “Don’t push it, Tim. Don’t push it.”

*     *     *

The officer punched in the code that opened the door to cell 1H. He hefted his stun baton and waited anxiously, the mutants were to be transferred out immediately. He still couldn’t believe it himself. Two X-men, and they had gone peacably! The concern would pay them all enough to retire on. He would love to retire. Maybe some place up north where the summer didn’t last all year and sandstorms weren’t ever a problem. Someplace he could try ice-fishing.

The door slid open and he stepped in quickly, shining a bright halogen light into the cell. The bright light was meant to give officers the second they needed if ever any prisoner should try to rush out. Believe it or not, it worked most all of the time.

The light fell and clattered to the floor, the officer’s mouth hung open in shock. They were gone. In the corner, the tattooed man lounged on the bench that circled the cell, staring calmly at the officer.

The officer regained his composure and stalked angrily over to the man. “Where are they?”, the officer demanded.

The tattooed man’s voice remained calm. He shrugged. “They escaped.”

“Shock,” the officer swore under his breath. “Shock shock shock…” The officer flipped his wrist over and thumbed on his communicator badge. “Marty, look alive, we got escapees in 1H.” The communicator hissed static in reply. The officer kept an eye on the tattooed man. “Marty?” The officer thumbed the badge again, changing the frequency to an officer-wide alert. “We have escapees in 1H. Repeat. We have escapees in 1H. Please respond.” Static.

The officer walked briskly towards the open cell door. “What the shock is goin’ on here…” The officer had no time to scream as a hand yanked him from the doorway and into the hallway. The tattooed man sat up in surprise. What was going on?

The tattooed man heard a loud THUD as whoever it was outside slammed the officer into the metal walls of the hallway. Followed by the officer’s high pitched scream. Finally, the tattooed man heard what could only be the officer’s body falling limply to the floor. He steeled himself. He was sure he was next.

A thin, muscled woman appeared in the doorway, ringed by the bright light of the hallway. She was tall, as tall as that mutant that had just escaped. In fact, aside from the hair and the fact that the woman’s skin was blue, they looked almost exactly the same.

The woman stared at the tattooed man with deep red eyes. “They escaped?”, the woman asked him in a tone that brooked no argument.

“Y-yes…maybe twenty minutes ago.”

The woman sighed. “This is getting more complicated than it should be. Do you know where they went?”

“No. Some car just…materialized inside this cell. Passed right through the wall. And some guy with a golden faceplate told them to get in and they drove away. They had a shriek junkie with them. I think they were going to help him.”

“A clinic then. Nearby. Makes my job a little easier,” the woman said to herself. Almost as an afterthought, she addressed the tattooed man again. “Thanks.” With that, she was gone again.

The tattooed man let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding and slid back down onto the bench. Mutants. Who needed that kind of trouble around?

*     *     *

His eyes refused to open. They were great big blankets of solid lead that just hung there, welded shut. His head lolled back and forth slowly, he simply couldn’t gather the strength to lift it. It was all well and good, he supposed. Even if he could somehow manage to open his eyes, the motion would probably make him empty his stomach. Everything was numb and heavy, as if someone had switched his body with stone while he wasn’t looking. He knew he was alive. Only people who were alive felt as much pain as he did. His head throbbed in agony. There were two smithy’s inside, banging away as hard as they could, he was sure of it. His brain wanted desperately to escape his skull. It hurt to think, it hurt to move, it just hurt, period. He tried to go back to sleep. That was the only way to make things better. He could ignore it if he was asleep.

Suddenly an unseen force jerked his head upwards, sending a fresh wave of aches down his body. Henri groaned as the invisible force kept his head up. He couldn’t resist it even if he wanted to. He had no energy left. Why couldn’t he just sleep? For just a little while longer…

“You will face me,” a voice said, and Henri’s eyes snapped open forcefully. The light blinded him, all he could make out was a hazy blur of color. A wave of vertigo spiraled through him, churning his stomach queasily. The sensation remained there for a bit, rolling around inside him. Henri felt his throat clench and his stomach ripple and spasm in protest. Nothing was coming up, though. The dry heaves hurt like hell, but the queasiness didn’t go away.

“You’ve been doing that for a while now,” the voice said. Henri couldn’t make out who was saying if, or if there was even anyone in the room. “Father shouldn’t have shot you so point-blank, you’ve made quite a mess so far.” Vaguely, Henri remembered throwing up several times before. But surely those were dreams? The memory was so hazy and detached…it didn’t seem like it really happened.

“Perhaps I should be thankful for that, even,” the voice said. “It’s been a non-stop bore waiting for you to come to.” Henri’s mind was beginning to clear. He knew that voice. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was the harsh tone of Gavin Rentaro. The gravity-wielding son of White King Martin Rentaro. Gavin was his father’s lapdog through and through, even though the elder Rentaro treated him like dirt. It was the worst case of super-powered dependence he’d ever seen. Although maybe Gavin was right to fear and obey his father. If Gavin had the power to pull planets from their orbits, then how powerful was his dad?

Henri’s vision became sharper and Gavin came into view. The kid looked impatient, as well he might. Suddenly it came to him…he was still alive. The events came rushing back to him. Getting shot in the face by Martin Rentaro…packing hurriedly to leave…there were disks he was supposed to bring the X-men. What were they? Morphine. He had betrayed Halo City and X-men all along. He was going to expose Henri to the Inner Circle to bolster his standing with them. All the bad things that had been happening in Halo City. Was this how it was going to start for him? Interrogation first, then exposure?

“You know, as you might have guessed, I have some questions for you,” Gavin said, playing up his part of the confidently cruel interrogator. Abruptly, Henri became aware of his position. He tugged his arms and legs, but they stayed firmly affixed to the wall. He was chained and shackled solidly to the wall, or perhaps simply some rotating platform, Henri couldn’t make it out. His arms and legs were stretched out as if he were about to be drawn and quartered. The cuffs over his feet and hands were probably inhibiting his powers, he assumed, since it seemed to be taking so long for him to recover from the stun blast he took. Henri took it in stride, his body may be running a little slow, but his mind was still as fast as ever.

“That’s great, I have questions too. Maybe we’ll find the answers in each other,” Henri said, or tried to say. His throat was dry and sore and his lips cracked when he opened his mouth. His tongue seemed to be swimming in a mouthful of cotton. So this was what it was like to be drunk. He had to smile, he always processed alcohol so fast he never really knew. Immediately, Henri decided he hadn’t been missing anything important.

“My father warned me you might be flippant,” Gavin said. The youth was sitting in a chair across from Henri. They seemed to be in some stone chamber in the Alaskan Complex’s underground levels. The servants called them the Catacombs, he recalled. The room was brightly lit at the moment, but Henri was sure that was simply for Gavin’s use, and that when he left Henri would be plunged into darkness.

“Yes, your father would,” Henri answered. It was helping to speak, it unraveled the knot of confusion his head was. “So when does he get here? I’m eager for this interrogation to begin.”

Gavin gave Henri a cross look that came off confused. “I’m going to be questioning you, Christopher. First of all, give me your real name.”

Henri ignored the question. “Really? He would trust something like this to you? Wait…does he know you’re down here? You shouldn’t play around like this, Gavin. The grown-ups don’t like it.” Henri’s tone was innocently intimidatory. He braced himself for what he knew was coming.

The invisible blow knocked his head back against the stone wall he was affixed to. Henri moaned. His head was ringing, that was a harder blow than he expected…

To his credit, Gavin remained reasonably calm. “I can wield the very forces of gravity itself, Christopher,” Gavin warned. “I can crush your limbs to dust with a thought while you watch in horror. You would do well to answer my questions.”

Henri made a show of being groggy. “Sure thing, Martin…”

“Excuse me?”

“Uhhh, just calling you by your name, Martin…,” Henri feigned. Gavin was his only hope of escaping, Henri knew. But Gavin was no good to him in this condition…

“My name is Gavin,” he stressed, more than a little annoyed.

“Really? I would have thought your dad would name you after himself,” Henri taunted. Vaguely, he realized Gavin hadn’t figured out he was an X-man. His cover was still good, somewhat. Though he wondered how long that was going to last.

Henri moaned again as his head was knocked back against the wall. He really should have seen that one coming. He had touched a nerve.

“Geez, Mar…Gavin, it was an honest mistake. Give a guy a break, I was just shot in the face.” This time Henri didn’t have to feign grogginess so much.

“What were you planning against the Hellfire Club?”, Gavin asked, a harsh edge in his voice. Henri guessed the interrogation was back on.

“Ohhhh you know,” Henri said. “I thought I’d infiltrate and overthrow the Hellfire Club.”

Gavin laughed. “You’re doing a lousy job…”

“Well it’s just a hobby of mine,” Henri joked, his words slurring here and there. “The wife works all the time and the house cleans itself, so I needed SOMETHING to do…”

Gavin scowled as he sighed. “The more you avoid the truth, the more it’s going to hurt.” Henri felt a sudden pressure around his torso. It constricted slowly, forcing Henri’s breath out. Henri made frantic gasping noises, he couldn’t breathe.

Gavin counted to five and then the pressure released itself. “Next time it will be longer,” Gavin threatened. “What were you and Morphine plotting against my father?”

So that was it. This was a mess that was completely separate from the one Morphine was going to stick him into. Just his luck. “So that’s it. It really is about your father. You know, you’ve got this…distinctly unhealthy obsession with him, Gavin,” Henri taunted.

“Answer the question,” Gavin ordered. Henri could feel the slight pressure around his abdomen again.

“We were going to kill him and Morphine was going to usurp his seat on the Inner Circle,” Henri said quickly. No doubt that was exactly the answer Gavin and Martin were looking for. And it wouldn’t hurt to give Morphine some trouble, considering the circumstances.

“How?”

The pressure around Henri’s abdomen remained. Henri sucked in a breath. “He was going to be your dad and I was going to be you and I was going to let him use me in every little way because I’m a coward!” It was time to step up his intimidation a little. Henri only hoped he would be able to survive the consequences.

The pressure increased ten-fold. It was crushing his ribs. Henri would have screamed in pain, but he didn’t have the breath.

“WHY do you INSIST on infuriating me?”, Gavin yelled. Henri could only gasp and croak in a futile grab for air. It seemed like forever before the pressure disappeared. Henri sucked in as much air as he could. Doing that hurt as much as having his lungs constricted did, but at least he could breathe again. Henri swore never to take air for granted again.

“And why…,” Henri gasped. “Do YOU insist on being so infuriated unless you know it’s TRUE?”

“Do you think I don’t see that thought on the faces of everyone here?”, Gavin screamed. “They all think what you have just said. But I am my own person! I serve him because I choose to! He is going to be the most powerful man in the world someday. And I am going to be there to take it from him!”

“That’s a load of static,” Henri said. “He’s got you on a shock collar, Martin Jr.” Henri stressed the name on Gavin. “He’d shoot you down if you even made a single move against him. You’re not a son. You’re a dog.”

Here it came. Gavin’s face was red with anger and his teeth were clenched shut. Henri closed his eyes. The blows came quickly. Mother Mercy must have taken a liking to him, Henri decided, because it wasn’t too long before he lost consciousness. The blackness took him again.

Gavin saw Henri’s body slump down once more. He was out cold. Angrily, Gavin sat back down into the chair. He had lost control and lashed out at Morphine’s stupid aide. He sighed and tried to calm down. He was his own person, he told himself. His own person…

*     *     *

Who knew being an X-man would keep you so busy? Sham rubbed the remaining tiredness from her eyes as she walked along the hallway to the X-men’s board room. The upper levels of Halo Tower were usually quiet, no matter what the hour. The administrative and government offices were all kept below the sixteenth level. The hustle and bustle of secretaries, interns, and the like coming in for work wasn’t a bother this far up. Sham preferred it that way, waking up this early was like getting over a hangover, she needed quiet.

As of now, she was really the only X-man in the city, although not many people knew that. Tim and Luna were off on their little road trip (she didn’t really buy into that whole “Avalon” excuse, she didn’t understand why he didn’t just come out and say he wanted a vacation). And the others were off visiting an old friend, as Shakti had put it. Luckily, aside from that odd little protest the day before, nothing serious had happened that warranted the presence of the X-men. Victor had defused that situation quickly, and they had spent the rest of the working day training. Victor was teaching her about the dynamics of mutant powers and the fine art of information reconassiance and general sneaking around. It was a welcome change of pace from the usual combat stuff they did in the Danger Room. Not that he was letting up on that one bit, she was supposed to meet him down there again today at around eleven. They were going to spar while the X-Nation brats had morning classes. She was beginning to like the Danger Room. She at least appreciated it more than X-Nation did. All those kids did was complain, complain, complain.

She hoped the X-men got back soon. There hadn’t been any superpowered crisis’ lately, but that was always bound to change at a moment’s notice. And the longer it was between them the more nervous she got about it. Although in a twisted sort of way she was was looking forward to the next confrontation. She was itching to try out her new skills.

The door slid open to the board room and Sham found her wishes granted. “Guys!”, she exclaimed as they all turned to face her. “You’re back!” Sham paused, noticing the new faces. “Who’s the walking Oscar statuette?”

“Oh, that’s Dexter,” Krystalin answered quietly, she didn’t seem to be awake either.

“Otherwise known as Shell,” Xi’an answered.

“Oscar statue?!”, Shell exclaimed. “What happened to your hair, girlie? You frighten yourself looking in the mirror?”

Sham looked annoyed, behind Shell she could see Shakti trying not to laugh. “And the award for Biggest Jerk goes to the Tin Man!”, she shot back.

“Looks like you’ve nabbed the award for Lamest Comeback,” Shell sneered. Sham could hear Eddie giggling in the corner. Sham fumed.

“That’s enough, you two, we have to start our morning meeting,” Krystalin said, yawning as she took a seat at the round table in the middle of the room.

Sham took her seat with the rest of them. “So really, who is he?”, she asked, pointing to Shell.

“Dexter is the newest addition to the X-men’s ranks,” Krys answered. “He can process ultraviolet light and radiation into an ultra-hard shell around his body. He can also broadcast UV rays if needed, apparently.”

Sham didn’t believe it. “What? We’re just picking X-men up off the street now? I know we needed some new members but this is a little ridiculous.”

“Edward vouches for him, and that is all we need,” Xi’an answered.

“Yeah, and that’s another thing, who are you?” Sham pointed a finger at Eddie.

“Eddie is an old friend, Sham,” Shakti explained. “He was one of the first X-men, back when we lived from day to day, roaming the desert.”

“I left the X-men last year for personal reasons,” Edward explained. Sham’s eyes went wide when she looked at him. He was MASSIVE. He looked almost ridiculous sitting next to them all. “But when Shakti, Xi’an, and Krys came to me for help, I could not refuse them.”

The board room’s door slid open once more, and the X-men turned their heads to find Victor Ten Eagles standing in the doorway.

Victor seemed surprised. “Krys…Xi’an, you’re back.”

“We got back last night, we’re having a morning meeting right now,” Krystalin explained.

“Oh…oh, I’ll come back then. I came to get Sham, she and I have some training to do down in the Danger Room.”

“It’s alright, Vic, you can stay,” Sham said. “We’re your pals. Well, except for those two.” Sham thumbed in the general direction of Shell and Eddie.

Victor gave Krystalin a questioning look. “You don’t have to leave, Victor,” she said. “Have a seat.” Krystalin took a moment to introduce the two “new” X-men as Victor sat down. “This is Eddie, a long time friend of ours. He can absorb the properties of any metal he touches. And this is Shell, our newest recruit. He absorbs UV and turns it into a body shell.”

“Shell has a smart mouth,” Sham added.

“So do you,” Victor chided. “But perhaps Shell here has the skills and instincts to back himself up.”

“Like I don’t? C’mon teach, you gotta admit I’ve been making some great progress,” Sham responded.

“We should really get down to business,” Xi’an said, interrupting the two.

“Yeah, first of all, Shell and Eddie need to be put officially on the team so the Guardians and City Council will recognize their status.” Krystalin turned to Shell and Eddie. “You two will need uniforms.”

“Hey! Cool, I always wanted to be part of that whole official superhero process,” Shell said. He glanced at Sham. “Just don’t give me something like THAT.”

Krystalin tried to hide a smile. “You can design your own uniform, Dexter. Also, I think we should all schedule some training sessions in the Danger Room as a team, well, without Shakti obviously.”

“Obviously,” Shakti said. “I need to get back to the kids. Who knows what kind of trouble awaits me back at the Xavier Shelter.”

“You wish to see how Eddie and Shell can function while fighting as a team?”, Xi’an asked Krystalin. She nodded in agreement. “I agree with you. It would be foolish to take them into a combat situation immediately.”

Krystalin nodded. “Exactly. But we can hold that off until tomorrow morning, I think. Eddie and Shell need to get living quarters ready and set up and we all have our own personal lives to attend to.”

“I was hoping we would be able to start tonight, actually,” Xi’an said.

“We need some down time, Xi’an,” Krystalin stated. She kept a wary eye on Xi’an, he was demonstrating the same pushiness he had when he was leader of the X-men. And she didn’t like it one bit. Especially since she was the appointed leader now.

“Besides, I have plans tonight, too,” Victor said, glancing at Krystalin. “And nobody goes tumbling through the Danger Room without me there.”

“Then that’s settled,” Krystalin said quickly before Xi’an could edge in a comment. “I don’t think there’s anything else to discuss…”

“Does anyone hear that?”, Sham interrupted. “I hope that’s not what I think it is…”

“What?”, Krystalin asked.

“There are a large group of people outside, highly agitated,” Shakti said as she stared at the table. She tended to space out when using her telepathy.

“Shockin’…,” Victor muttered, getting up and going to the window. “Not again.”

“What? What’s going on?”, Krystalin said, joining Victor at the window. A large protest was going on at the foot of the tower.

“It’s probably the same people from yesterday,” Victor answered.

“Yesterday?”

“There was a protest down there yesterday, but Victor came down and defused it. Everyone’s up in arms about us,” Sham explained as she and the others joined Victor and Krys at the window.

“What have they got against the X-men?”, Shell asked.

“Everything,” Sham answered grimly.

“Look at those signs. ‘X-men X-clusionists’, ‘Mutant Racists’…what the heck is this all about?”, Eddie asked, puzzled.

“Who knows,” Victor answered. “But one thing is particular has me worried.”

“What’s that?”, Krystalin asked.

“This crowd is twenty times the size of yesterday’s,” Victor answered, he turned to Krystalin. “We have a real problem on our hands.”

*     *     *

The hand-held device beeped pleasantly and flashed green as it released Tim’s cred card. Tim snatched it up and smiled. “Credit’s good huh?”, he said to the attendant behind the large semi-circular desk. They were at the El Paso Center Hospital in the reform/detox wing. It had taken a while to get the addict they found in the cell admitted. In the end it had taken Luna’s intimidating face and Tim’s money to get him processed through quickly. The addict was going to get top notch treatment, gene therapy, and a room with a view. Tim hoped the man appreciated it.

“Yes sir,” the attendant answered. “He will receive the finest treatment possible without a black card. El Paso is no stranger to this kind of ailment. Unfortunately.”

“Hey, that’s great. Make sure he gets it, too. Lock him down if you have to,” Tim said.

“Yes sir, will there be anything else?”

“Yeah…tell him he’s got a second chance at life, courtesy of the X-men,” Tim said smiling. He turned to Luna, who was staring off in the distance, her back to the attendant. “Let’s go, Luna.”

“’Courtesy of the X-men’?” Luna snorted as they walked down the hallway to the lobby.

“Never hurts to plug the dream,” Tim explained. “Where to now?”

“The Driver made his way to the El Mercado Grande to meet up with the c-space netdiver. What was her name? Blue Haiku?”, Luna answered.

“Broken Haiku,” Tim corrected. “Courtesy of Xi’an, really. I hope she doesn’t hold a grudge against the The Driver because we’re with him.”

“He went off alone, she doesn’t know we’re with him,” Luna stated.

“She knows. She’s that kind of person,” Tim said as the glass doors in the lobby swung open. Outside it was a sunny desert day. A cold wind wound its way around the city, raising the hairs on Tim’s arm.

Luna stopped abruptly and stiffened, staring intently down the steps that lead down to the street from the hospital. Standing boldly at the bottom was a tautly muscled woman with deep red eyes. Her skin was blue.

Tim’s face became apprehensive, he glanced at Luna. “That’s her, isn’t it?”

“Who are you?”, Luna demanded as they walked down the steps towards the mutant. “What do you want with us?”

“I’ve had a difficult time following you. I had to run off in the hotel because of the police. Then I go to bust you out and find you already escaped. You two sure are something,” the blue mutant responded. Her short blue hair whipped around in the breeze.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re following us,” Luna said angrily, she looked ready to fight.

The mutant stared intently at Luna. “I need your help, sis.”

Next Issue: Yeah, like I need to tell you why you need to read the next issue.
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