Written by Fred Garber.
Marrow pushed up the sewer grate, and let herself into the parking garage near the courthouse. She had to get inside, and so began to stalk towards the stairs, two knives already drawn. She crept between the cars, looking for signs that they had posted sentries. It was time to start to using some of those skills she had bragged about. And this was a much more serious use than playing "Tag" in the woods.
With a start, she realized that the car she was hiding behind was occupied. A well-dressed yuppie upworlder couple was in the front seat of their BMW when they spotted her, crouching besides their driver's door, and screamed in terror. Marrow realized she was probably looking similar to her old appearance, with random bone growths and unkempt hair. Not to mention the faint glow from Boost inside her. I do not need this now. They'll lead them right to me. She thought, and dropped her knives to show her friendliness. The couple stopped screaming.
"Don't be alarmed. I'm an X-Man." Sarah tried to muster as much confidence in that as she could. She still didn't believe she was an X-Man.
"An... X-Man?" The blond woman whimpered.
"I got the giant X on my belt buckle, don't I, flatscan?" Real smooth, Sarah. They'll believe you now. "Listen, we don't have much time. I need you two to stay quiet, and hidden, until I can stop them in there from killing hostages."
"Listen, mutie." The brown-haired man, seeing Sarah as a girl, and not as a vicious warrior, began to show a little bravado. "Why shouldn't we call for help?"
"Because by the time help got here, you'd be dead, or a hostage yourself. Fine. Scream. See if it saves you." Sarah took off past the couple, heading for the stairwell. The couple looked at each other, and then scrambled to hide deeper in the car, trying to make as little noise as possible.
Marrow continued up into the courthouse. She noticed with a sad smile that the Gene Nationals had copied her decorating style, with "This way for the wild fun trial" carved into the wood paneling. Following the arrows, she could see the courtroom, where Tether lay on the floor and Reverb, out of his armor, sat drooling. Looking closely, she could see that Tether's breath was very shallow, her chest barely rising and falling. She almost headed into the room, when a voice in her head stopped her.
"It's a trap," Boost said in her skull. "See the gills on her neck? If Tether was unconscious, she wouldn't be breathing through those too. I know when she's faking.
Overshare, Boost. I don't care. But how stupid do they think I am? Marrow shrugged. It was painfully obvious that Tether was a trap, now that she knew what to look for.
"Of course, if I wasn't along you probably would have rushed in."
"Boost, go back to the background. I'm gonna follow the arrows backwards, and hope that they haven't learned too many new tricks since I ran with them." Sure enough, the arrows began in a small room that revealed Vessel guarding a massive conference room door. A few faint cries still came from the other side of the door.
"Guard up, Vessel. Caught you napping." Marrow slid into the room, pulling knives free with a shlunking sound.
"Marrow," Vessel was on his feet quickly, and he too began to move in a circle. "Sack wanted us all to be there when you died, but I guess he'll be disappointed."
"Not today, Richard."
"Richard died a long time ago on the Hill. Call me Vessel, and I'll kill you for betraying our cause."
"Cause? We had no cause. We were just angry children, lashing out."
"Lashing out at the upworlders who condemned us to another dimension, and taught us only to battle and make war on the Hill!"
"You are wrong, Vessel. The upworlders are lazy and soft, but they did not condemn us." Marrow feinted to the left, but Vessel knew her fighting style, and didn't flinch.
"Rasputin and Callisto are to blame, then? I thought you liked Callisto." He circled her slowly, waiting for a moment.
"We are to blame for our actions in the Other Place. We believed that only the strong would return to the surface world. Instead, Storm brought us all home. Strength didn't matter here. Only how you used it, what you attacked. I couldn't see that before." Marrow knew she was a better fighter than Vessel, but one misstep and he'd take advantage.
"You're wrong. The X-Men. Pah!" Vessel spat, aiming for the floor, hoping she'd slip. No luck. "They have clouded your vision. You used to be pure. Simple. Deadly. Lovely."
"I was tragic, and horrible. I hated myself so much that I thought no one could ever like me." Step right. Slash right.
"Did they? No. They don't love you. They love what they're changing you into." A dodge to the left.
"We belong to change. We are mutants. If we don't look for a future, we will have none." Watch his hips, look to see where he'll turn.
"And what rewards are there in this future? A shiny belt buckle with an 'X' on it?" Marrow eyes flashed down to her waist, and for an instant her attention faltered. Vessel's massive arms reached for her, and before she knew it, she was caught in a bear hug that threatened to break her back, and she felt the breath knocked out of her.
Concentrate. She had to concentrate, not give in to the red haze that began to flit at the corners of her eyesight. No, not red. Black. Why was she worrying about the color of the haze?
"Surrender, Marrow." How long can a mutant go without air? Longer than this? Can't reach her knives, can't kick, can't breathe.
"Submit, Sarah, I really don't want to kill you," Vessel's use of her real name shocked her enough to get a hold on her runaway brain. She concentrated on the bony pads that covered her body, willing them to grow quickly. "Thank you, Boost."
"Arrrgh!" Vessel relaxed his grip, as the newly grown spikes pressed into his thigh and upper arms. Sarah took a deep breath and head butted Vessel, the spike on her forehead stabbing into his right eye. He dropped her, and the bone shard snapped off, still embedded in the ruined socket. She gasped, and caught her breath as Vessel clutched his ruined face. "Goodbye, Vessel," With a spin kick to his head, Marrow ended this fight. She grabbed the inhibitor cuffs that lay discarded on the floor, and relocked Vessel's around his wrists.
She limped over to the thick doorway, looking for keys. When she got there, she saw that Vessel had simply bent the doorknob, locking the door in such a way that she couldn't unlock it, and the hinges were sealed and unreachable.
"Hello?" she called.
"Yes! Yes! We're here! Let us out!" The frantic voices on the other end startled her, and she took a step back. The need in their voices was tangible, and she had never heard anyone, flatscan or mutant, so desperate.
"I'm... I'm not strong enough to open the door. But Vessel won't bother you anymore. If you can wait, some flat... somebody will be around to let you out soon."
"Who are you? Help us!"
"I'm... Marrow."
"Who?"
Sarah grinned. "I'm with the X-Men. We're here to help."
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"You check the alley?" The big bald cop accepted the Styrofoam cup of coffee from his short partner.
"Yeah, it's clear. I'll stay here and watch these two streets, and you check the next block."
Using the winds to propel her silently, Storm drifted down behind the policemen, and moved quickly to the back of the alleyway behind the courthouse. Picking the lock on a back door, she slipped in before they even thought to look for an intruder. After wandering for a bit, she found herself in the main courtroom, where a green, reptilian body lay on the floor, and an unfamiliar mutant appeared to be convulsing in the witness chair. With a start, she recognized the two scars on his chest. She had placed them there herself, after he attempted to interfere in her duel with Sarah in the Morlock tunnels months ago. His eyes appeared not to track her as she edged around the room. He appears to have suffered from the same affliction as Jean and the other telepaths. He seems to be incapacitated. Storm cautiously stepped over to the green mutant. With a start, she recognized her as one of the two Gene Nationals that had left the African village with Havok and the Brotherhood. Storm thought for a moment, before remembering her name.
"Te... Tether?" Storm called. "Is that you? What are you doing here?" Her only response was a low groan. Storm bent down to see if she was all right. "Are you injured?"
Tether opened her eyes, and with a swift movement, wrapped her tail around Storm's leg and sent enough electricity through her to stun her. But Tether had miscalculated Storm's resistance to electricity. But Reverb, surprisingly, stood, and hit Storm twice in the gut. She collapsed, wheezing for breath, and cracked her skull on the concrete floor. Instantly she went limp and passed out.
Hemingway and Sack emerged from the judge's chamber and looked down at the body. Sack nudged it with his foot. "I'll have trouble possessing her if she's unconscious. Wake her up, Reverb. Why'd you hit her so hard?"
"Nasty lady stabbed me. You wake her up." Reverb wandered back to the chair, and instantly was snoring. He had not adjusted well to the loss of his psionic abilities.
"I hope the Dark One can fix Reverb's attitude." Hemingway sighed.
"He'll fix him, all right. If we give him Reverb, he'll put Reverb in the same soup that screwed you up, Hemy." Sack frowned. "Tether, get back in position. Marrow will be here any second."
"I'm jusst fine. Thank you for assking." she said, "And I've been wanting to do that for a long time." Looking down at the body, none of them saw the doorway ease open enough for someone to look through from the outside.
Marrow peeked in the end of the courtroom. Who was that on the floor... Storm? She came for me!
"But how many other X-Men are out there?"
"Sarah'll be here. They don't want her enough to risk all these breeders' lives. And besides, once Storm wakes up, I'll be able to possess her, and then the Gene Nation will have enough power to let you and Boost live however you want."
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With a cry, Marrow flung open the door and sent two knives whizzing at Tether and Reverb. Tether dropped down, but Reverb was pinned to his chair by his shoulder, and could only twitch and snarl at the former terrorist.
"Relax. I've got her. She'll be no trouble." Hemingway swung one of his massive gray arms, and cleared an area front of the judge's podium. "C'mon, Marrow. Time to die." Unnoticed in the sudden melee, Sack began to creep towards the limp form of Storm, who was already beginning to stir, lying forgotten under one of the benches.
Marrow stalked towards Hemingway, pulling two more bone knives from her hipbones as she did so. "You forget, Hemingway. I knew you on the Hill. I beat you there. I always beat you there. I beat you then, and I will now."
"I have seen the Dark One, and he has helped me," Hemingway swung at the quick, young mutant, but she had already dodged, and vaulted over his shoulder onto his back, where he couldn't reach her.
"Not enough," Marrow said, plunging shards as fast as she could pull them into Hemingway's skin.
"Aaargh! Hurts!" He was breathing heavily, blood flowing freely down his back as Marrow leaped off and spun to face him. She watched with amazement as the skin healed up. Where had he evolved a healing factor? "Marrow is enemy. Will crush, kill, destroy Marrow!" Hemingway lumbered around. It seemed that as his body became more powerful, his mind became less so. Dark Beast hadn't been as clever as he claimed, and left Hemingway with a weakness she intended to exploit.
"Not today. I've got a little help now. A Boost." Marrow watched Tether's eyes go wide, and prepared to fling more knives at Hemingway as her bone growth, accelerated by Boost's presence inside her, gave Sarah new weapons almost as fast as she could pull them free. But he moved faster than she did, and his fist lanced out to splinter the floor beneath her. Only by leaping up did she escape a fall into the room below her, and landing on the hard concrete there. While in the air, she was vulnerable, and Tether took full advantage to tackle her and send her smashing into the panicked jury box. Marrow rolled to her feet, but Tether kept a hand wrapped in her hair, and pulled Marrow's neck back.
"Let my husssband go!" she screamed, worried far past the point of self-control. Her tail began to crackle menacingly, and she prepared to wrap it around Marrow's neck.
"I'd really like to, but we're not done with him yet." Already recovered from the tackle (thanks to Boost), she grabbed Tether's wrist, pivoted and swung Tether into Hemingway, who was waiting for Tether to get out of the way before he hit Marrow. All it took was a graze of Tether's tail, and electrical fire raced around the big Morlock's frame, dropping him into unconsciousness quickly.
"I know all your weaknesses, boys and girls. You can't handle an electrical charge, Hemy. Whatever the Dark One did to you, that took away your mind, he didn't fix that flaw."
"But with Hemingway down, I can let loose!" Storm/Sack cried, and summoned winds to slam Marrow up against the wall as the former leader of the Morlocks rose up, possessed. Unfamiliar with the powers of his host, he blew Tether and Marrow both out the window, and into the courtyard of the Justice building. "Whoops. Little bit too much wind. He lifted off the ground, and went to go see what damage he had done. He found Boost and Tether, lying side by side on the ground. "Where's Marrow? Get up."
"Gone." Boost held out his wrists, and showed the bone spike through it, linking his hands to Tether's. "Even if I pull this out, we'll be bleeding, and in no shape to fight. We're out. If you want Marrow, you'll have to take her yourself."
"Yesterday, I would have had problems. But not in this body."
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When Sarah got back to the courtroom, she carefully pushed the door open and peered inside. She had beaten Sack to the room, Hemingway was still out cold, and Reverb was still gibbering in the witness chair, completely oblivious to the chaos that must have raged around him. She headed for Hemingway's heavy body. If I push him into the hole, he might stay knocked out for a while longer. That'll give me time to head back down, and find his cuffs. Sarah knew she had to keep buying time. But for what? She didn't know how to contact the rest of the X-Men. And the human police? Storm/Sack would slaughter them when they arrived. Callisto? Bright Lady, she wasn't able to fight Storm at her best! And who knows where she was hiding now? Sarah smiled at that. She was even starting to swear like Storm. She bent her knees to push harder.
ZZZAP! The ground sizzled at her feet. Storm/Sack floated in, and Marrow ransacked her brain. No Boost, her own powers already pushed past safe limits, and she had to knock out Storm without killing her. Unconscious, Sack might be rejected from her, and leave Storm alive. No one said redemption was gonna be easy, kid. Time to use those skills I've been bragging about, Sarah thought, as a plan began to emerge.
"Well, there you are. I must say, we didn't expect to find you back here." Sack/Storm floated over to Marrow, Storm's boots at Marrow's chest height. "I expected you to run right back for the Alley, not try and complete your rescue. It's no matter, I'll kill you, and then this host and I will make this city pay."
"Tag!" Marrow screamed, and leaped up, grabbing a hold of Storm's cape and hair. Startled and surprised, Sack/Storm fell to the ground, lightning crackling around her. Marrow hit the ground with her shoulder and rolled both of them into the hole, and as Storm's random lightning lashed, out, Marrow was paralyzed and knocked out by the fall as the rest of the ceiling/floor caved in above her.
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Oh, my head. Why is it so dark? Where am I? Storm blinked, clearing her head. The back of her skull felt wet, her hair was sticky, and she had trouble making out shapes. As soon as it became clear that she was trapped under rubble in a basement, panic clutched her heart. Letting a blast of hurricane winds clear the way, she burst her way to the surface. Trying to fly up, she noticed the lack of cape, and looking down she say it clutched in a bony pink grip. She tapped her communicator.
"Storm to Beast. Get in here, quick."
"Stars and Garters! Storm?" Storm heard the sounds of Beast bounding his way into the basement from outside the courtroom.
"It seems Sack cannot possess unconscious victims. I am free, but he's escaped, and Sarah's trapped."
"The guards outside have Sack and his compatriot miscreants in custody, and Sarah shall be freed momentarily." Hank and Storm lifted the debris clear, and with a frown, Hank bent down to check her condition. "She's alive, and other than a broken arm, it seems she's suffered no major damage."
"Broken arm?"
"Well, it's bent 90 degrees halfway up, and three quarters of the humerus is exposed. Even for Marrow, that's unusual. I've reset the bone back in place, which was remarkably easy with her skeletal structure, and she's got several burns that may take days to heal even with her accelerated healing, but she should be OK."
"Storm? Beast?" Marrow struggled to sit up.
"Rest, Marrow. The authorities are here, and they say you managed to free all the hostages. The only casualty was the man Sack used to gain entrance to the courtroom. In addition, our allies in the political arena are working upon some biological samples that may prove to be the gift that grants you legal absolution for your criminal activities." Sarah murmured something and passed out again.
"What did she say?"
"I think it was... Earned the belt buckle?"
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MUTANT TERRORISTS CONVICTED
"And so, thanks to the testimony of two former members of Gene Nation, one 'Boost' and one 'Tether', charges have been filed against the recaptured surviving perpetrators of last year's horrific mass-murders, including their leader, known only as 'Sack', who engineered today's escape. We can see the four captured mutants leaving over my shoulder, but authorities are keeping the press from getting clear photos of them. Officials have declined to comment, but the Rwandan government has asked for all of the mutants to be returned to the Gene National Colony established in the center of their country. With the recent unrest in the area, several concerned parties have worried about allowing a powerful, militant mutant presence to flourish in the region."
"What will happen to the brave mutants that agreed to testify for the state? No one is quite sure. And what has happened to the terrorist leader, one 'Marrow'? A report indicates she helped recapture her former friends, and is working with a secret anti-mutant terrorist organization. This reporter hopes she can find somewhere to begin her life again, and someone who will accept and help her grow beyond her criminal past. Perhaps someday she, and her friends who will testify, will simply be seen as mutants that risked their lives to see justice done. This is Trish Trilby, signing off for WNBC, New York."
Sarah turned off the television that Boost and Tether shared, and went to head back up to the mansion. The two mutants were recovering in an upworlder hospital, under FBI 'protection'. Marrow had been checking up on their place to make sure the other dwellers in the tunnels didn't rob them blind. Maggott was still lost down here, somewhere, and she had been asked to lead him back to the mansion.
CLAP CLAP CLAP
From the back of the Alley, a lone human stood, clapping. Her blond hair cascaded past mirrored sunglasses that hid her eyes, and her tailored suit looked very out of place in the Morlock Tunnels.
"Congratulations, Sarah. I'm very proud of you."
"Get lost or get cut, flatscan. It's dangerous down here."
"I'm sure you think so. Would it reassure you to know that I've got half a dozen SHIELD Mandroids down here as backup?"
"That makes you feel safe, Super Special Agent? I could gut you before you could blink."
"Heard it all before."
"And that's what you're doing to me?"
"Not in the slightest. It's your lucky day. You get to save the lives of millions of us flatscans."
"Is this some kind of a joke?"
"No joke. It seems that your friends have been working overtime trying to show your rehabilitation. Frankly, I don't care what you think. The X-Men will keep you on a short leash. But your bones are useful."
"My... what?"
"Your bones are exactly what modern medical science needs. They lack several key genetic markers that most people have: In other words, your bones could be anybody's bones. I want to harvest the marrow, forgive the pun, from your bones to help in transplants, cancer victims, and the like."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Believe me, if certain other people in the government were in charge of your operation? You would have been locked up, and only seen the light of day when we came to pluck the bones and take them away. But you have some powerful friends, Sarah. And they've decided to grant you immunity in return for the following deal. Once a week you show up at Westchester County General Headquarters, and they'll be a team there to evaluate your condition, and remove some of your excess bone growths."
"Westchester? I don't live that far north."
"It's not many mansions within easy flying distance to NYC that had an alien power signature, Sarah. Don't worry, I am on your side."
"I... don't..." Marrow searched for the right words.
"Say 'Thank you', Sarah. Then go back to the X-Men. If we ever see each other again, I'll pretend this meeting never happened."
"Thank you." Sarah turned and disappeared into the tunnels silently, making the trek back to the mansion. Dr. Cooper flipped her communicator back on. "This is Valerie Cooper to SHIELD Units. Primary Objective terminated." She smoothly lied. "Proceed with Secondary and Tertiary Objectives at will."
The End.