Days of Fuchsia Pissed
Posted on Mon Aug 15th, 2022 @ 12:44pm by Charles Xavier & Scott Summers & Connor Bruin & Cameron Hood & Elias Buckley & Elizabeth Villar & Jade Farwynd
2,852 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2: Northern X-Posure
Location: New York
Timeline: August 4th, 1990
By the time the Blackbird had come overhead, Elias and Myfanwy had been escorted off the street into the parking lot of condemned motel. With only one way in or out, there seemed like there would be few surprises. A handful of other people stood or sat idly by, though their distinct lack of chatter or movement betrayed something was amiss. Whenever Elias or Myfanwy failed to move as fast as desired, their armed escorts gave them a shove, leading them toward a moving truck parked at the closed end of the lot.
Myfawny resisted as the guard pushed her, perhaps gathering more ire from the man. "Hey, can you like watch it, I'm doing the best I can here." she chatted out, her comments largely ignored except for another shove forward.
Lilac eyes broke their keen concentration on the approaching mutants in order to observe the arriving Blackbird.
"Let's go!" Cameron called as he jumped out the window, landing in a painful crouch, his knees reminding him that parachute training was not a pleasant experience. With a grimace the Brit pulled his pistol and looked around as his team dropped with him.
Connor was right behind him, landing in a crouch with one hand outstretched for counterbalance. Jumping out of the Blackbird had been the opposite of his stated intentions, but once events were in motion, Connor allowed hyper-focus to corral his mind into a singular course of action. It was almost as if he were outside his body watching someone else move.
Jade jumped down next, though she proceeded to roll as she made landfall to distribute the force of the impact before getting up and following Cameron and Connor.
"I'm going to leave the jet in hover mode," Cyclops said to everyone.
~No, Scott~ said the Professor's voice. ~I have not yet ascertained the nature of the situation, and I cannot risk everyone becoming compromised~
Cyclops snorted with frustration and pounded the instrumentation panel with his fist before sitting back with arms folded. He'd been benched before, but never when lives were at stake.
On the ground, the two police officers had finally reached the moving truck.
"We're here," they announced in unison.
From around the hood of the vehicle sauntered a man in a velvet attire that seemed out of place. It was hardly noticeable, for the mauve color of his clothing matched his complexion.
"And here they are," he said, his lilac eyes taking in Myfanwy and Elias in turn. "Come, now. Tell me who you are and what you can do."
~SO. STRONG~ The Professor's voice sounded strained with great concentration in their minds. ~Comply when possible. Not a telepath. Something else~
The purplish man made Myfawny feel off. She was not sure what but he had the eyes of a shark, calculating but lacking a park of life. She shuddered a little as she reached over toward Elias. She found it hard to put the words together, she wanted nothing to do with this man. "M... my name is... Elizabeth." she had planned on saying Iris, her only friend at Xiavier's school, but something about the man made her say her actual name, something that revivled her both at being compelled and at having to use her hated name. .
Elias' response to the request was as predictable as the scowl that echoed in those dark eyes.
"Go fuck yourself," Fable told the lilac-clad villian, boldly and without any obvious attempt to break free from the restraints. "Who the fuck are you?" While in his head, the teen sent a thought he had no idea of knowing if X would pick up or not. Jammer or shielder maybe?
"Me?" The purple man turned almost coy. "My name is Killgrave. You will come to know it well should I decide to keep you. If you are more trouble than you're worth, though, then it's off to the flesh peddlers."
Fable scoffed, mostly visually with a short snort of breath through his nose. "Keep us?" he threw back. "Good luck with that." Behind him, the red glow began to form about his left hand, but that was just the fastest way of removing the restraints. "We're just the right kinda trouble."
Any second now, he figured. Tear the fabric, and he and Myfanwy would step back into elsewhere but close by.
Jade followed after Cameron and Connor, using them as her tether, while she tried to reach out with her senses, to isolate and identify the guards. Once she managed that, she would attempt to disable them by cutting off the blood supply to their brain. What if she tried a clot though? That would be far more effective!
"It would also most likely kill them. Permanently screw up their brain at the very best. Get a hold of yourself woman! This is not what we're here for!" Thoughts battled in the aussie's head as the trio approached their cornered friends.
"We'll move on my mark." Cameron whispered as he looked around the corner, seeing three strangers standing around their charges. "Jade, do you think you can take them both or do we knock out one and jump the other?"
"Something. Wrong." Connor's speech-generating device had a low volume, but the monotone was the same as usual. "Those. Men. Are. Not. Normal."
Bloodhound could feel it too.
Jade nodded, "Connor is right. There is something more to them, something that's not from themselves. Drugs or an external influence of sorts." She said, "I will try to take both of them out at once but be prepared for a tag team, because I don't know if I can override whatever they have in their system."
With that said, Jade reached out, her eyes and wrists pooling with red energy. "Ready when you are."
Connor took a deep sniff and then sneezed. "Feels. Weird. Possible. Allergen."
But his sneeze alerted the entire complex to their presence. Killgrave himself took them in and grimaced. "Obliterate them," he ordered.
A dozen people began to converge on the trio.
~He knows his control is being blocked but does not know why~ said the Professor's voice within their minds. ~He will become unpredictable and may put his thralls in danger~
"Fable! Get Myfanwy out of here! Bloodhound, knock as many out as you can, Caveman, cover her! I'm going to try and grab the boss!" Cameron called he tried levelling his pistol at the man in purple. But thralls stepped in front of the line of sight. Cameron had to take a step back towards his team as the first fists came at him awkwardly. Cameron's pistol slid back into its holster, and he sunk his other hand into the wall, pulling out two thin stone staves.
As Connor somersaulted over the nearest encroaching civilian-turned-assailant, he dropped a fist into the center of their skull. By striking the bregma, which is the point of contact where the skull's separate pieces fuse together after infancy to close the anterior fontanelle, Connor hoped to induce enough blunt force trauma to disrupt cognitive function with minimal physical injury. The man let out a soft yelp and toppled over like a felled tree.
"One!" Connor announced with pride.
Jade reached out, releasing the hold, into the bloodstreams of the two original targets, holding back the oxygen molecules from reaching their brains. There was something interfering the cut off process, so the Bloodhound reached out further, tightening the blood vessels, fighting the interference. They needed to go down fast so she could switch targets.
Hands freed from their ties even as Fable stepped out of view with Myfanwy, the elder teen placed feet briefly within the Blackbird's passenger cabin. With only a flicker of a nod and the faintest moment of contact between his right hand and the young girl's shoulder he then vanished, leaving her behind. Boots found the concrete of the lot once more and this time Fable pulled a few of Killgrave's thralls away and dropped them into a random dimension, uncaring to where they wandered. As he stepped back, alone this time, Elias took stock of the ever changing situation, watching Killgrave closely. Mind control - dangerous business if that's what it was.
Myfawny breathed a sigh of relief to be surrounded by the cabin of the Blackbird. On her own she was powerless in these circumstances, but with a safe place around her, she might yet be useful. She sat into a seat in the blackbird, and as her talents allowed, quickly fell asleep.
Cameron rotated each club in his hands one more time to test the balance. Then he stepped towards the man in the purple suit. A civilian lurched at him, a wild haymaker aimed at Cameron's face. The Englishman ducked beneath the swung and used his club to hit the man in the stomach hard. Cameron used his momentum to carry him through a rotation and landed the back of his fist on the back of the man's head. The club's end didn't connect with the skull, but the weight helped knock him down.
The second attacker already came, this one raising his pistol at Cameron. Before it could be properly aimed Cameron's club shattered four fingers on the man's hands and sent the pistol skittering away. A second blow on the neck sent the man to the ground.
"Oh, blast it all!" shouted the Purple Man as he turned his hands to fists and stamped his foot. "You lot aren't worth it! Not at all!"
~Apprehend him if you can~ the Professor said. ~This man has been an unholy terror for a number of victims, it seems~
Behind Killgrave, a slightly shimmering visage of a young woman came into being, her hair brilliant white, her eyes almost glowing with power. She reached her hands out to grab Killgrave's shoulders. The effort to remain physical was draining on Myfawny, but in the immediate circumstance whe could maintain it for several minutes, just by force of will in her Astral body. "You are not going anywhere, Killgrave." She didn't know much else what to do with him, but he really couldn't physically hurt her in this form.
"Stand aside," Killgrave ordered. When the otherworldly apparition failed to obey, he furrowed his indigo brow in angry disbelief. "What? I said STAND ASIDE!" Yet nothing. Myfanwy had Killgrave's full attention at this point as he forced the brunt of his power onto the image of the stalwart woman. Spittle flew from his lilac lips with his next imperative. "REACH INTO YOUR OCULAR SOCKETS AND RIP OUT YOUR OWN EYES!!!"
The brilliant, almost glowing young woman looked him in the eye quizzically. Why was he being so nasty? She slapped him across the face with a wink. Being a hero felt good.
Having managed to knock out her two targets, Jade focused on the rest before noticing Killgrave. She reached out, using the blood already spilled to form tentacles which reached out to grab at the man in purple. It was hard though, surprisingly hard. As if the blood of their enemies refused to heed the hemomancer's command.
With a final blow, shattering his victim's shin and having him collapsed, allowed Cameron to approach Killgrave from behind. His concrete club swung, aimed at the side of Killgrave's neck.
With an undignified groan, Killgrave fell to the ground in front of the moving truck and moved not a tick.
As the purple man crumpled under the assault, Myfawny released the grip on her Astral form and faded into a semi-translucent state. Remaining physical in a combat situation was more trying than anything she had attempted before. Shortly her remaining consciousness faded from the scene, returning to the girl silently sleeping in the Blackbird.
~I am implanting a subliminal command within his subconsciousness that will make him forget his powers of persuasion~ said the Professor's voice in everyone's minds. ~If fortune is with us, then the barriers will last the remainder of his life~
Connor's voice sounded articulate and eloquent when expressed on the tides of Professor Xavier's telepathic connection. ~Professor, while this particular villain has been subdued, but we are no closer to accomplishing our objective--in fact, this particular victory may have caused us to fail our mission. Shall we board the Blackbird and assist the others?~
~Not necessarily~ The Professor's mind was calm but with an undercurrent of stress. His divided attention was beginning to take a toll. ~This Killgrave used a dead-drop system. There are restraints in the cargo area of the moving truck, and I know the coordinates Killgrave was to leave the no-contact delivery. Anyone who wishes to proceed may do so~
"NNNNNO!" Connor grunted far louder than necessary.
"I will proceed but I am not staying near Killgrave." Jade said out loud, still trying to shake the effects of trying to subdue Killgrave through the blood of the people he'd controlled. It was tainted somehow, and his blood almost felt like poison to her. Just being near him made her stomach turn.
"I'm in," stated Elias, simply. If nothing else he was curious now, and a little pissed off at how close they'd come to potential servitude. Or death, though that didn't scare him as much as the former.
~From what I have gleaned from his subconscious, Killgrave's control is exercised vocally. A simple gag will prevent him from accidentally forcing a directive should he awaken~
That was not good enough for Connor. Speech was not his strong suit. At best, he could get out a syllable or two, and usually not very clearly. Here was someone who had the gift of compelling speech, and what did he use it for? Mayhem. Destruction. Death. It was enough to make the hair on Connor's neck bristle with rage.
Lunging forward on all fours, Connor grasped the unconscious Purple Man and dislocated his mandible with one fluid pull of both hands.
~Connor! He was subdued! We do not maim our adversaries, especially when they are helpless!~
The Professor's disapproval was unmistakable through the shared telepathic connection, but Connor just leveled a cold stare at the others, daring them to add their protest to Xavier's.
Saying nothing as Connor's gaze scanned over them each in turn, Elias did harbour an overt smirk. ~Connor, great job, dude~ he added to the Professor's invisible verbal tide.
Cameron's eyes locked on Connor before shaking his head. His expression was one of silent anger and disappointment. "Do something like that ever again and you're off any X-team."
~I will notify the authorities once everyone has departed either by Blackbird or the moving truck~ said the Professor's voice. ~Take your positions swiftly~
Jade nodded to the telepathic voice, "I'll ride the Blackbird then."
For his part, Cameron stepped over to one of their downed opponents, pulled off a sock. This sock found its way into Killgrave's mouth, and was secured with the roll duct tape he found in the van. After securing hands and wrist too, he dragged the purple-clad man in the box and slammed the loading door closed. "Everybody on the plane. We have work to do."
Jade boarded the Blackbird with a shiver of disgust and unusual loathing as she thought of the purple psycho.
"I'll take the truck," stated Elias. "Nothing to lose everything to gain, right?"
Cyclops stepped forward, having exited the Blackbird which he'd left idling on hover mode. "So will I." He exchanged his trademark visor for a pair of ruby-quartz sunglasses.
~No, Scott!" protested the Professor within everyone's mind. ~I need you to pilot--~
But Cyclops shook his head as much to clear out Xavier's voice as to disagree. "Autopilot can return everyone home just fine. It needs to be me, Professor," he said aloud. ~I need this~
Back in the Mansion, Professor Xavier felt a cold sweat form up around the edges of his helmet. A rift had formed between him and his first student, as Scott did not believe Xavier had benched him for his own good. It was fatherly love which had guided Xavier's decisions, not a general's stratagems. But Scott was balanced on the edge of a knife, enduring his personal torment with a stoic aplomb that Charles did not believe he could have summoned at Scott's age.
~Very well~ Xavier acquiesced. If Scott were to be recognized as Cyclops, it could potentially endanger the mission. Yet the point of this reconnaissance was always to facilitate a potential rescue. If Scott wishes to be the vanguard, then Xavier would grant him that and trust his oldest student.
Having just asserted himself for the first time in weeks, Cyclops nodded in assent of the new situation. "I will drive the moving truck to the dead drop. Anyone wants to join Fable in the cargo compartment, jump in now and we'll get you restrained. Everyone else is done down here for now."
"We'll keep the Blackbird over the truck the whole time," Cameron said as the last one to leave the ground.
To Be Concluded...
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