CRY OF THE BANSHEE
By Patrick J. Kane
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A tale starring Sean Cassidy long before his days as Generation X's Banshee
by Patrick J. Kane(Bansheegnx)
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Me name's Sean Cassidy. Throughout my life I have played many roles: a husband, a father, a cop, Interpol Agent, a thief, an X-Man, and now I'm a teacher. Sounds like a full life don't it? Still things continue ta happen to me each and every day. I must say though that no day compares to the day I began a new case, somethin' personal. That day I also met a man who would later turn out to be one o' me partners and one o' me best friends, an agent Michael Dreven.
'Twas a normal day, just like any other cold, damp, and gloomy.
Like every day I debated whether or not to get outtta bed. Course me mind always convinced me or perhaps tricked me with words like duty and honor. I was young and alone at the time. Always tryin' to hide, perhaps escape the fact that I was a mutant. Then mutants were still relatively new, and they weren't called mutants, nothin so nice rather somethin more like a freak of a nature. I was at Interpol nae a week when me assigned partner, Alex Preston, who was supposed to be the experienced one was shot and killed. 'Twasn't in the line o' duty either. He had just clocked out and stepped out of HQ when a sniper nailed him right in his forehead. They had paired me up with him so that he could show me the ropes.
Well, this a time out they hadn't any other chaperone ta pair me up with. So reluctantly they sent me up with another rookie, 'twas Dreven, - he had only been at Interpol three weeks longer than I. He was my height. He outweighed me by a good thirty pounds, and I dinna learn his hair color till our third day as partners cause he always wore a brown fedora hat. He never took that hat off. We were assigned some pointless case. If they couldn't keep an eye on us they made sure only to assign us cases that we could get inta any trouble with. Although someone was reassigned the case that Preston and I were workin' on I felt obligated to follow it up. Sure, I barely knew the guy but I still felt obligated to solve that case. Dreven caught me thinkin' and plannin' about it. I thought he would either turn tell the boss or lecture me on protocol. He did neither, in fact he offered ta help. So when we weren't on duty we were still a workin. After a few days we still had nothing to lead on.
Then one day Preston's wife Shannon came into talk ta me. In Preston's will he had left Shannon everything. Includin' a key to a safety deposit box. A day after the reading of the will, Shannon used the key to open the deposit box. She was flabbergasted to find over a million dollars within. She, like I, couldn't possibly imagine how her husband could obtain a million dollars on an agent's salary. Even an experienced one like Preston. It occurred to me that he could be on the take. It was hard for me to imagine my partner on the take, but what other possible reason could there be? I dinna dare tell Mrs. Preston, I dinna want to taint her image of her husband. Not sure what to do from there I told my new partner Dreven my theory and he agreed with me one hundred percent.
So right after Dreven had clocked out he went to the agent assigned to Preston's murder, O'Brian I believe. He told him what we had uncovered. O'Brian promised to look into it. Dreven then came to me later that night and he left a blood stain on me doorstep. He killed his would be murderer but only after being shot in the arm. When Dreven removed the ski mask he saw that 'twas O'Brian. We came up with the strategy of waiting. Waiting for me to be bribed. Then at six thirty PM when Dreven went out to get some dinner I was confronted by a man in black, size of a house. He wasn't there ta bribe me he was there ta give me a beating. I could easily have taken him but I dinna wanna use my scream. I might as well just walked inta an FoH meetin and said, "Hey! Guess what! I'm a mutant! So I let him pound me a few times and then I listened as he gave me a warning.
He said, "Stay the hell away."
When I asked stay away from what, he punched me in the nose.
He then left with a confident look on his face and climbed into his car and started to drive away. I figured that if I could follow him I could see who was behind this whole mess. Not having a car, Dreven took that, I decided to exercise my mutant powers. So I opened me mouth, let out a scream and took flight in pursuit o' that car. I came down at a large building on the outskirts of the city. Not a building really, more of an estate. Anyway, I went ta the nearest house, showed me badge (gave the kiddies a thrill), asked to use the phone to call Dreven to come and outta the kindness left the woman who was nice enough to lend me her phone a quarter for the call. As soon as Dreven arrived we decide to brake in to find out what the hell was going on. I told Dreven to go round back to see how many guards are there.
I then started screaming lightly just to disorientate the two guards. I then can in their visual range and then I slugged them a few times until they were out cold.
Then Dreven then came back around the corner and said "There are four guys back there back there it would be easy from here...what happened?"
We then proceeded into the estate. Then with a low level whisper I shattered the lens in the security cameras. Course Dreven had no idea what I was doing when I covered the side of me mouth with my hand. We ran inta little ta no guards until we were well inta the house. Then it was like a barricade of heavy armed guards, what ta do eh? I started think of a plan when Dreven just started picking the guards of like flies. Course I now had ta cover him. I came out with me gun and started firing, then Dreven got a bullet in the shoulder. He dinna even let it phase him.
We soon broke inta the main hall where they were waiting for us.
Michael then of course was going to try and play hero again and this time he would surely be killed. So when he started to charge the others I kinda tripped him. The others were so confused with my action I had time to make my move, while they were looking down I started shooting at them. Dreven then picked up and started shooting from below. I realized the sheer number of men so I realized it as only a matter of time so I fired my last few bullets at the roof cause a cave-in which put down a great deal of guards.
We then headed into the room as to which the guards were guarding. We found three men in black suits each with a different type of hand gun. They formed a triangle around a man whom I wasn't able ta recognized at that point in a chair. This time I twas going ta be the one charging in there head first. That's what I did, I busted in and capped the two men nearest ta me. Dreven got the other one. We assumed that the main threat was over and let our guard down. Then the man in the chair pulled a gun faster than I'd ever seen it done, so fast in fact that I dinna even notice he fired a gun until I saw me blood on the carpet. I fell, he had shot me in the upper right thigh, it hurt like bloody hell. Dreven of course acting on impulse aimed his gun again and a hair away of blowing the man's head off when I fired a bullet from me gun which shattered a nearby vase. That got both Dreven and the man's attention. However Dreven still had the man in his sights and the man still had his gun in hand. I then hobbled up in great pain and stood directly in front of the man in the chair, never letting on that I felt like I was going ta pass out from the pain. Dreven then took the man's gun.
I then asked " What were ye paying Preston ta stay away from? WHY DID YOU TRY AND KILL HIM?" I of course pointed to Dreven. "WHY DID YE HAVE ME BEATEN?"
The man's only response was a smile followed by a laugh.
"I like your spirit my boy, how's 75,000?" offered the man.
Still not knowing why he would be paying me I still said to him the thing I would have said had I known what this was about. "I dinna want yer dirty money, I JUST WANT TA KNOW WHAT HAPPENED WITH PRESTON?"
The man then exploded with a side kick right into Dreven's gut, knocking him down, he then did spin kick ta me injured leg, and down I went.
"I don't need those men out there but it's nice to have them around." he boasted.
Dreven got up and said, "Eat shit and die!"
Dreven then made an attempt ta kick the man in the family jewels but it was blocked by the man's hand. Dreven, losing his temper, charged. The man quickly stepped aside and as Dreven attempted to turn around he got the butt of a gun in the back of his head. This man moved so fast that he had time ta spare even after he retrieved his gun. I started to fade in and out of consciousness and when I looked up I saw the barrel of the man's gun in me face. Enough with hiding my powers I thought. So I then released a shattering sonic scream which not only caused the man to drop the gun but also knocked him out.
When Michael came to, he kicked the unconscious man in the side and said, "Let's take him down to headquarters and interrogate him."
I then had t' remind 'im that half the people in HQ could be working for him. Dreven dinna care to be told that.
"We have ta make our presence known, but taking ta god only knows where we'll never get any results."
He had a point... this man might be only a small corner stone in this big conspiracy. We took him to Headquarters and sat him down at me desk, Dreven handcuffed the man to my desk. We started to interrogate him when our superior saw us, needless ta say he came over. " WHAT IN THE SAM HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" shouted the boss.
"We've charged him with the death of Agent Preston," replied Dreven.
"I told you were off the case, even if he did do it we would have to let him go," grumbled our boss Agent O' Conner.
O' Conner then asked for the keys. I gave them to him, and he uncuffed the man. The man started to walk away when he turned and looked at me.... and he then disappeared into the masses.
"Dammit! we had him!" yelled Dreven.
"We still do, trust me."
I then grinned and went home. Later that night I was in bed wide awake playing dead you might say. I then heard a creak and I knew he was in the room. Call it intuition, call it luck, call it what you want but it was probably the fact that he grabbed my throat. With that grip he pulled me out o' bed and was hanging me in the air.
"So you're a mutant too," the man growled.
I knew he was a mutant, how else could he draw so fast? Dodge so fast? It was the only logical answer.
"I am Jonathan Crowlie but you may call me Ares," preached the man.
"Ares? The God o' War? A wee bit much dinna ya think boyo?"
" DON'T YOU EVER MOCK ME! YOU'RE IN NO POSITION!"
"That'd be where you're wrong."
With the word wrong Dreven busted in with O' Conner.
"What?!?" asked Ares.
"Ya got the chief?" I asked.
"Yeah, I finally got him convinced," Dreven responded.
With that O' Conner pulled his gun and aimed it at me?!?
Dreven then dove at O'Conner feet, and the gun went off in Ares direction. Ares did a double flip and was on the ceiling. Even I was impressed.
The bullet went through the wall.
ACK! Me landlord will love that, I thought.
Ares then came off the ceiling and landed on me: I went down. He then flipped out the window and suddenly we were on the 4th floor!
I got up and took a gander out there to see Ares sticking ta the side of the buildin'. He then said "be seeing ya around". He started to walk down the side of the building; I saw that Michael was pre-occupied with O' Conner so I dove outta the window and I flew after the guy. I was flying fast and hard dinna knew if I could keep it up. This sucker was fast be ninna fast enough, and he knew it so he ducked down inta the sewer. I followed but the time it took for me ta get down there he had a good head start so I had ta trying something new with me powers... Echo-location or Sonar. In virtually no time I caught up. As the case persisted we came to a dead-end, however the dead end had an outlet a one man elevator leading up. He took before I could and when I still pursued him, it lead to a lab which I think was part of the building we first found Ares at, but there was no way ta be sure. Ares then sat in front of a column of TVs.
"Do you want to know why I call myself Ares?" asked Jonathan.
"Why the fu--" I was cut off.
"I may not start wars but I sure as hell fuel them. Prejudice is a great weapon in the hands of some one who knows how to use it. Now if ya excuse me I believe I have a "cold war" to carry on."
With that, Ares grinned and he turned his back to me. Just as I was going to let loose he began to brag again.
"I started this little game back in what you call the Civil War in America and I've been doing it ever since."
"Are ye daft? The American Civil War? Ye canna be serious," I said in shock.
"Far from it. You see, I was the first mutant ever. I met a man whom wanted me to call him Apocalypse. We made a deal: I would do this and he would grant me immortality. Help him bring down mankind. An unholy covenant of death and eternal life."
"I wonder when the men will bring ye a wee white jacket?"
"YOU DARE MOCK ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
He pulled some type of gun and fired. I flew to dodge but the laser thing that fired followed me till I was hit in the back by the blast. I was knocked out cold, I dinna know how long I was out but when I woke the place was shaking violently. What had he done, hit a self destruction button or something? The answer was nae, the building was shaking loose of its foundation. I flew out o' there like a bat out o' hell.
When I was safe I looked back. I saw the place take off into the skies to meet with a large ship.. I dinna knew then but that was the ship Apocalypse himself twas operating out of.
Aye, this be a case for the Unsolved Filing cabinet. When I got back to HQ it was just in time ta see Dreven get a full confession outta O'Conner. It went something like this: Ares was paying O'Conner to keep people away from his operation. Preston was paid for breaking into the records room and shredding the already existing file on Ares which was in the record room. Ares and O' Conner thought that since Preston's job was done he was no longer needed and was also a risk so they had him killed. Ares was nowhere ta be found so O' Conner got the full blunt of the charges. He was sentenced to death for crimes against the world including murder, treason, among other things.
I decided I needed a break and took some time off and went back ta Ireland where I met Maeve Rourke but that be another story....
The End.
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