All known X-men characters in this story are copyrighted by Marvel Comics.
No permission was obtained, but no profit is to be made from this story. It
is purely for my personal enjoyment and those of its readers. All other
characters, concepts, plots, theories, technology not seen in Marvel Comics
belong to me.
Please don't distribute this without asking me; I probably won't mind if
you did, as long as it wasn't altered in any way. I'd just like to know where
it's going.
Please, enjoy this story, and send me your comments, be they good or
bad, to percy@atlas.webo.dg.com or jpercy@clariion.com.
Thanks for reading!
John Percy
NOTE: Please don't contact the various archivers for back chapters. Just
contact me at one of my email addresses, and I would be more than happy to
forward the whole shebang to you. Also, I'm sorry it took so long to get this
chapter out; Thanksgiving and all, you know.
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Revelations - Chapter 10
By
John Percy
During the next few weeks, I make it my business to avoid Grey as much as
possible. It's not that she makes me nervous or anything, or that I'm losing
sleep knowing she's around. I am keeping tabs on her, via the security cams
and a few Rooks I trust shadowing her. It's just that I've been really busy
with my daily routine. Really.
Still, I do make sure someone keeps track of her, even if it is Alex. He
has his orders too, and I have no doubt he's executing them with his usual
efficiency. He's probably got a room full of videotape on her activities
already.
Which is somewhat convenient since occasionally I would review the tapes,
keeping up on Grey's activities. At first, she mostly remained in her assigned
quarters, watching holos and vids, using the computer's library resources.
Alex nearly had a coronary when he heard about that, claiming she was trying
to steal 'state secrets'. Like the X-men would want to know about our waste
processing statistics.
Needless to say, I don't blame Grey for staying in her quarters. If I were
in the middle of an enemy stronghold, surrounded, with no one to help me, I'd
lay low too. Sometimes the best way to survive is not to run, or to fight
back, but to be still.
So, for a few weeks, I really didn't worry about Grey, knowing she'd pretty
much stay out of the way. If she asked for something, we supplied it for her,
as long as it was reasonable. She has food, entertainment, shelter; all
per Mr. Sinister's orders. Even Alex fetched a few things at her request,
though I could tell it made him furious. In other words, life pretty much
went on as usual in the Pens.
Later, though, she must have become bored with being a 'guest', and
started wandering about the Pens. Unfortunately, Mr. Sinister's orders were
explicit about that; she is supposed to have free access to most of the
complex. Alex, of course, thought this is insane, but didn't do anything to
stop her. He did increase video surveillance and started assigning Rooks to
follow her discreetly, and I agreed. It's one thing to be accommodating, but
it's another to be stupid.
For a week or so I was very concerned, worried that her isolation and
boredom might help prompt ideas of sabotage or escape in her mind. But, after
a week of intense watching, all she did was walk around, exploring the complex.
I don't blame her, really; I wouldn't want to be cooped up for such a long
time either. And if I was in her place, I'd want to become familiar with an
unknown territory too. So, when she didn't do anything after a while, I began
to relax a little, confident that she knew that to try anything would be
foolish. I went back to my regular routine, knowing Alex wouldn't; he would
have her watched constantly.
So imagine my surprise when Alex contacted me while I was supervising a
repair detail on the perimeter. "Havok to Cyclops." Strange enough, his
voice sounded like he is happy about something.
I frown, wondering what holocaust could have made Alex sound like that.
Mentally triggering the comlink in my visor, I sigh and respond, "Cyclops here.
What's going on?"
"Oh, nothing much, brother." Alex's sarcasm is not subtle. "But I would
suggest checking in on our little guest, if I were you."
Something clicks in my mind, and I think I'm not going to like whatever is
happening. "What do you mean, Alex? Where is Grey? What's happening?"
Alex's dark brand of laughter echoes in my ear. "You'd better get down to
the Kennel, Scott. If you ever want to see her alive again." With another
chuckle, I hear the channel close with a soft click.
I snarl inwardly. Dammit.
We keep the mutants with the most bestial characteristics in the Kennel,
near McCoy's lab. Most of them are pitiful creatures, whose mutation have
taken them so far towards an animalistic manner, that their minds are halfway
gone, with no intelligence. The few others are a result of some of McCoy's
more ... radical experiments.
In other words, it can be dangerous there. Last year, some kind of bull
mutate broke out, and killed half a dozen Infinites and nearly the rest of the
stock there. Alex eventually had to use a full powered plasma blast to bring
it down. Grey, without her powers, would be a tasty snack for some of the
creatures down there.
Without a word, I run for my cycle and leap on, starting the engine and
slamming it into gear in one smooth motion. Peeling away, I hope that Alex
is just pulling one of his sick pranks. Or that Grey just fell in a mud pool
or something.
I think about some of the creatures down in the Kennel and speed up.
**** **** ****
I roar into the Kennel a few minutes later and quickly come to a stop,
kill the engine, and jump off the bike. I don't hear any alarms; whatever
Alex is talking about, it can't be anything big enough to sound an alert.
I frown as I suddenly realize that it's not only alarms I don't hear. The
prisoners seem too quiet, and I don't hear the regular noises of the patrols
and guards on duty. In fact, I'd say the Kennel is almost deserted, except
for the prisoners in their cages. This fact concerns me more than anything;
there should at least be a few Infinites patrolling the area. Where are they?
My instincts tell me something is wrong, and my body automatically
responds; tensing, crouching slightly, senses becoming acute. I could call
in reinforcements, and have a few squads sweep the area, but I like the quiet
recon approach. Besides, overwhelming force isn't my style. At least, most
of the time it isn't.
I slowly walk through the area quietly, listening, scanning occasionally
with my visor, but nothing seems out of place; no heat signatures, no
radiation, not anything. I frown, thinking maybe I'm overreacting, until I
hear what I think is a muffled scream and quiet laughter down a dark side
corridor.
I stalk into the corridor, hugging to the walls and shadows, trying to be
as quiet as possible. I can tell from the refuse on the floor and condition
of the conduits and pipes that this corridor isn't used often, if at all.
Strange that someone would be down here.
As I begin to approach a turn in the corridor, I hear more muffled laughter
and something that sounds like a wet rag being snapped; it's immediately
followed by a muffled grunt and moaning. It sounds like someone's getting the
crap beaten out of them, as I hear the laughter getting louder, and more blows
being struck. I think there's at least three people; two different voices are
laughing, a man and a woman. The other is muffled.
As I edge closer to the corner, I can start to make out what is being
said. With the bad acoustics of this corridor, they sound farther away than
they actually are, but I recognize them.
"Damn, Leland, that must of hurt!" laughs one of the voices. A woman's
voice, and one I know well: Meltdown. I'd never forget that bitch's voice.
"Hurt her more'n me!" The answering voice: Harry Leland, another security
rook, who has the power to alter an object's gravity. Unfortunantely, his ego
and girth are greater than his abilities. "'Course, maybe weighing four times
what you normally do hurts more!" More laughing. "How d'you like that, you
X-man traitor?"
I curse all the luck, figuring they must have found Grey here alone, doing
whatever, and took advantage of it. Throw in Alex's message, and he's probably
in on it, too. Who else could have arranged to have the absence of patrols?
Alex set up Grey, and since he called me into it, he's probably trying to get
me framed for her injuries or death.
I quickly try to think up of a plan to handle this; something that will
teach Alex a lesson, but cause as little damage to Grey and the area as
possible. Unfortunantely, I can't expect Leland or Meltdown to simply laugh
this one off. I scowl as I can only see one way out of this mess. I wish it
could be done another way, but there isn't any time to think up of something
else.
Damn.
Standing as tall as I can, I try to ooze authority as I walk around the
corner. "What the hell is going on here?!" I growl menacingly. Maybe I can
get these two to back down, and end this quickly.
Leland and Meltdown spin around in surprise. Grey is on the ground, bloody
and beaten, tied and gagged. I can hear her moaning, so I know she's still
alive. For how much longer, I can't tell. I hope she can hold on long enough
until I deal with these two.
"Prelate!" Leland gasps, "But... how.. uh, this isn't how it looks..."
Leland's ability make him a powerful opponent, but he is at heart a coward.
I don't expect him to be much trouble, unless he loses his cool. Which is
likely.
Meltdown, on the other hand, is a different matter. She's not only got
an arrogant attitude, but the power to back it up. She doesn't scare easily.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't boss-man Scott Summers. Come down off yer high
horse to mingle with us commoners?" she sneers.
I stop a dozen feet away from them, and slash my hand through the air.
"Save it, you two scumbags. I've been listening to you for quite a bit; I
know exactly what's going on here." I jab a finger in their direction. "And
you've got exactly two seconds to tell me who put you up to this, especially
after Sinister's orders!" I put emphasis on the 'who' part.
Leland looks like he's going to piss in his pants in about a minute, but
Meltdown just laughs. "I got my own orders, Prelate! And they say if I beat
up little Miss Pretty here good, I'll get a promotion." She folds her arms
across her chest. "And my guess is, if a certain high ranking official got
himself killed, I'd get even more!" Staring right at me, grinning like a
maniac, she makes it clear who that certain high ranking official is.
Meltdown gives Leland a quick look, and he looks back, nodding slightly.
It's just as I thought; Alex put them up to this, probably with promises of
promotions and privileges if they succeeded and extremely painful deaths if
they are caught or fail.
Voice low and dangerous, I say, "I won't say it again. Who put you up to
this." Simultaneously, I set the aperture of my visor to its narrowest
setting, crouch slightly at the knees, and clench my hands into fists.
A second glance at each other, and they make their choice. Meltdown's
face scowls as her hand draws back in a throwing motion, her trademark sphere
of energy coalescing in her palm. At the same time, Leland steps sideways
away from her, trying to split my fire. A smart, if hopeless, strategy.
Meltdown's hand just begins to move forward in what would have been a
beautiful throw; beautiful, if not for the fact that a full powered optic
blast hits her arm between the elbow and shoulder. Set at its narrowest
setting, my optic blast makes an efficient cutter; at full power, it's a
surgeon's scalpel. Meltdown screams bloody murder as her arm is amputated
cleanly and goes flying away from her body.
Leland bleats in terror, and starts to gesture with his hand in my
direction in the hope of crushing me to the ground by increasing my body
weight. I don't give him the chance, and a second optic blast quickly removes
his head from his shoulders. As the body quivers for a moment before
collapsing into a pile of meet, the head bounces off the ground with a sick
thud.
Nodding grimly at the removal to the threats to me and Grey, I slowly walk
up to the cursing form of Meltdown on the ground, who is trying to stem the
massive bleeding from her arm. "Tell me who sent you to do this," I growl,
"And you might not bleed to death."
She looks up to me and laughs weakly; I can see it's already too late.
Falling back, she spits out "G... go... to... he...," on bloody lips.
"You first," I say, and I've got to admit that I don't feel too bad about
this piece of garbage leaving this world.
The bitch is beyond pain, and dies laughing, spitting up blood, knowing
I'll never be able to prove who sent them. Even though I know it's Alex. I
look down at the bodies for a few moments, knowing the world isn't any worse
off without these scum around.
Sighing, I walk up to Grey, noticing for the first time that she is awake,
and must have seen the whole thing, even with two black eyes. She must look
worse than she really is; it looks like Leland and Meltdown just beat her up
badly. I guess I got here in time.
I kneel next to her, and begin to loosen and remove her gag. As she spits
it out and coughs weakly, I pull out a combat knife I keep in a boot sheath
and say, "Are you all right?" as I begin to cut the ropes that bind her hands
and legs.
She spits out a little blood, and coughs again. "You... you .. dn't ....
have ... kill ..." she says weakly.
"Didn't I? Keep still, you'll just make it worse." Whether it's from
the pain or my advice, she goes limp, making my job a little difficult, but
not impossible. "We both know what those two had in mind. Besides, it sends
a message to the other idiots."
She coughs again. "Always... another way..."
I sigh and shake my head. "Not around here." She shuts up for a few
moments as I look at her bruised face and neck, to see if I can move her
safely. "What were you doing down here, anyways? Didn't you notice there
were no patrols?" Satisfied that she has no serious injuries, I start to help
her get to her feet.
"Was... was trying... to help some of the prisoners..." She had trouble
standing, and I helped her, as she babbled about helping or feeding or caring
for some of the animals here in the Kennels. I almost couldn't believe it,
but since I'd seen her do it before, it didn't surprise me. What surprises me
is that she seems to care more the death of her attackers than for the damage
they did to her.
I shake my head, and swoop her up into my arms. "Come on, I've got to
get you to the medical center."
She shakes her head slightly. "No... got to help..." as she drifts in and
out of consciousness.
"I think you can take the rest of the day off, Grey." Mentally triggering
the comlink on my visor, I say, "Cyclops to Havok."
"Havok here. Status?"
"Situation handled. I'll need a few transports though, to help pick up
the pieces."
Alex's voice pauses. "Anything specific?"
I smile to myself as I respond. "I'll need one to pick up the two bodies
of Grey's attackers to take to McCoy's gene pool. All they managed to do is
beat her up a bit, and I need another transport to take her to the medical
center." I fail to add that you're a bastard, Alex.
I can almost see Alex's grim face contorting in anger. "You killed them?
Did they say who sent them?"
I have to stop myself from laughing, and wish I didn't have to. "Yes.
When I found them, they tried to attack me. You know the penalty for that.
And there wasn't time for a conversation." Not like the one I'm going to have
with you later.
Another pause. "Acknowledged. Transports on their way. Havok out."
All I could think of was what I would say to Alex as I waited for the
transports.
**** ****
After taking Grey to the medical center and making sure she was well taken
care of, I took the transport back to security, where I found Alex and Mr.
Sinister waiting for me. With an angry look at us both, Sinister lead us into
a conference room.
As the door closed behind us, Sinister spins around and says, his voice
seething with anger, "Report, Scott."
I quickly recount what happened, in detail, from the time Alex informed me
of the situation to when I returned to security. Nodding as I recount the
story, Sinister listen carefully without interruption.
After I finished, Sinister turned to Alex and said, "And how, Alex, did
you know Ms. Grey was in trouble?"
Alex gulped. "Well, sir, I was watching her, as ordered, when she went
into the Kennels alone. It just happened to be that we were short-handed there
today, due to a lack of Infinites, and you know how dangerous the Kennel can
be. I knew she'd get into trouble." Then he looked at me angrily. "And
she did. Meltdown and Leland must have thought they'd get rewarded for
killing her. Scott wasn't watching her as closely as he should have."
I shake my head in disbelief. Only Alex would try to blame this attack on
Grey on me.
Sinister replies, "Scott is not Ms. Grey's personal body guard, though he
is responsible for her safety." He turns away from us and folds his arms
across his chest. "I am disappointed in both of you. Scott, because you did
not foresee this situation. Alex, because you try to shift blame and
responsibility."
He pauses again, and then turns to face us. "I expect neither of you to
disappoint me again. Is that clear?"
We both nod, knowing the penalty for doing so. Without another word, our
father walks by us and out of the room.
As the door closes, Alex turns to me and snarls, "This is your fault,
Scott! If not for your inept..."
Alex gasps for air as my fist slams into his solar plexus and drives it
out of his lungs. He collapses to his knees, retching and hacking. I glare
down at him, barely holding back from snapping his neck right here and now.
"If you, or any of your flunkies try a stunt like that again, Alex," I
snarl, "You'll regret it. Is that understood?"
Still trying to gasp for breath, Alex glares back at me with pure hatred.
"I'll kill you," he gasps.
Ignoring his threats, I storm out of the room, seething. I shove past
several troopers and Rooks, wanting to get as far away from security as I can.
It's all I can do to restrain myself from reducing the building to rubble on
Alex and his scum. The way I'm feeling now, I could do it, easily. But I
don't. Sure, it would probably kill Alex, but it would also kill valuable
Infinites and destroy important equipment. Instead, I decide to go back to my
quarters and brood.
Later that night, I have this strange feeling that it wasn't valuable
Infinites or equipment that stopped me from laying waste to security. It
wasn't a sense of duty, or loyalty, or practicality.
I didn't destroy them all because I knew if Jean Grey were in my place,
she wouldn't.
Damn.
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