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ax_main The Brotherhood gains a new member and tries their hand against Sinister.
Nico was hungry. This wasn't new--he was kind of always hungry. There wasn't exactly an oversupply of food on the streets of New York (not that he would really trust food that had been left there, anyways).
Still though, it had been almost twelve hours since he had last eaten and he was hungry . He sat against a wall in his alley (aka the alley he had managed to creep the other homeless guy into giving out) and bounced his foot on the pavement. Where were his friends?
He guessed it maybe wasn't normal for a guy's 'friends' to be undead rodents currently scavenging food. But hey, whatever worked right? The dead were way less complicated than the living, that was for damn sure. Besides, they knew the city way better than Nico, and knew how to not get caught. (Nico had ended up in New York after a shadow-travel-fluke that he was not real eager to repeat, seeing as he passed out right after and was mugged while unconscious of the $20 in his possession.)
Hearing a sound, over the rumble of his stomach, Nico grinned and stood up, brushing off his worn jeans. Lunch time!
They weren't paying him enough for this.
Randy Ballista shook the fucking zombified rat that was scuttling over his foot to the curb and shuddered. Mutants were bad enough. Fucking freaky mutants who made zombie rats were - he didn't even have a word for that, but he was holding out for double the normal bounty for bringing this one in.
Silently, he waved his arm, gesturing for Trent to head up the fire escape for a better vantage point, then headed into the alley. He looked, he knew, like just another homeless guy (which was what he and Trent had been, right up until the Right had offered them cash to keep an eye out or mutant kids on the streets, and who better than them to do it?) "Hey kid, you see a freaky-ass rat run through here?" he asked.
Nico froze, the smile sliding off his face. He reached for his pocket knife, eyes bouncing around the alley looking for a way out. He didn't know who this guy was, but he didn't seem like it'd be anything good.
"Aww c'mon kid, don't be like that," Randy whined, just to give Trent time to get into position. "I'm just sayin', I saw this rat, right? Looked like something straight out of a zombie movie. I'm thinking it's the start of that zombie apocalypse, like on Walking Dead, am I right?"
"Maybe you should get your eyes checked," Nico told him coldly, keeping his face blank. He reached out but all he could find nearby were more dead rodents and a dead cat. Not really much in the way of an undead army.
Besides, if he tried to raise much he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to keep it up.
"Maybe you should just say good night," Randy countered as Trent's tranq dart hit the kid in the side of the neck. Huh. Well, that wasn't so bad after all. Then he remembered the zombified rat and shuddered. Yeah. He was still going for double. They earned it.
Nico felt the dart hit him and acted on instinct, pulling it out and throwing it at the nearest guy. He could feel himself getting woozy but fuck that. He called on his friends and gasped out, "Eat shit, shit head." as he sunk to the ground, vision turning black.
Randy was smirking at the kid's reply when he felt the first bite. "FUCK!" he shouted as he looked down to see a dozen zombie rats around his feet, the closest of which were already gnawing at his shoes.
He was still trying to shake them off his foot when the cat landed on his head.
______________
"I felt like we had something for a second," Illyana said without looking up from her scrying mirror.
Forehead furrowing, she tried to focus the image. In theory, it could be working - they'd been trying for days to pair up her scrying mirror with Eileen's ability to hone in on mutants in a specific area. Technically, the similiarity principle should apply - but seeing as it had never been done beore, she wasn't sure now, and there'd been a lot of experimentation. Still, this was the first time they'd gotten anything - she really didn't want to give up on it now.
"Are you getting anything?" she asked.
"I'm getting fucking irritated," Eileen replied, floating cross-legged in the air with her eyes glowing a vibrant purple. "Does that count?" None of that irritation was directed toward Illyana, specifically; in theory, pairing magic with electromagnetic detection seemed like it should absolutely be a thing that could work. The fact that after several days of trying they were still coming up bupkis was taking a heavy toll on her notoriously limited patience. "Maybe we should call it quits before I burn out somebody's nervous system out of--"
The blond started suddenly, luminous eyes widening. "Wait! There! I'm sure I got something that time." What kind of something, she couldn't begin to say. But it had the definite earmarks of a mutant harmony.
"Okay, hang on!" Illyana stared at the mirror and concentrated on focusing in on the current image, which was showing a part of New York she was almost positive she'd seen before. The picture began zooming in, until it was showing a homeless guy who was...
"Umm,is it me, or does that cat on the guy's head look kind of, y'know, dead?" Illyana asked, hoping Eileen would provide a second opinion. Either way, there was a kid on the ground, unconscious, and she was willing to bet he was the mutant, not the guy being attacked by undead animals.
"Look, nothing," Eileen replied, mouth twisting up as she got a better grasp of the general harmonies in the area. "That cat is definitely dead. So are the rats. Unless you call magic bullshit, I'm definitely comfortable labeling this a mutant phenomenon." Her eyes narrowed. "In which case, there's a couple of flatscan douchnozzles in that alley desperately in need of an ass kicking."
"It's...I don't think it's magic," Illyana hedged. She couldn't really be sure without actually, physically, being there, but while she knew spells that would animate the dead, it didn't feel like one of those, somehow. "I'm going to tag the kid; that way if anything happens, we'll be able to find him. Want to see who's around?" She closed her eyes and got ready to cast a spell on the unconscious figure. Hopefully it would be strong enough to track, even if she cast it here on Earth. She didn't want to chance losing the connection by taking everything to Limbo.
"Two flatscans and a whole mess of New York roadkill," Eileen reported, nose wrinkling. "Lemme know when you've got the kid tagged--this could be a lead on the Right. Or some other heinous fucking mutant-exploitation program we haven't caught wind of yet."
Distracted, Illyana nodded acknowledgement - then slumped a little as she completed the spell, pouring energy into it. "Got it. I should be able to track him anywhere." She looked up at Eileen. "Who's around for a rescue?"
"I've been cooped up in here with you, scanning a mirror all morning," Eileen grumbled. "Hell if I know who's around. Let's go scrounge up whoever's still here. I'm pretty sure between you, me, zombie kid, and even the wimpiest member of the Brotherhood, we can sort these fuckers out. Whoever the hell they are."
"I can get us there, but most of my magic's going to be wrapped up in the tracker spell," Illyana admitted as she got to her feet. "Maybe a couple of people wouldn't be a bad idea."
-------
Nico came to and the first thing he noticed was the smell. One of the assholes who nabbed him was carrying him and damn, he smelled worse than Nico. And Nico had been living on the streets.
He tried to pry open his eyes, which was a real effort. Giving up on that for the moment, he instead reached out. Wow...there was a lot of dead people here.
Where the fuck had they taken him?
"They've moved him," Illyana complained as she finished scrying for the tracer spell she'd put on the unconscious zombie summoner. Frowning, she gestured for the others to come closer so they could see the mirror. "Looks like they're taking him inside somewhere. Do we want to catch them outside?"
"I would prefer to kick their asses sooner rather than later," piped up Eileen, changed now into the modified combat gear she'd cobbled together and a newer iteration of the ankle-length purple coat she'd always favored on missions. "So outside works for me. Of course, that shouldn't stop us from busting up the place once we're there."
Vance shifted a little awkwardly in his kevlar vest - it felt strange, to wear it, it really wasn't comfortable - and didn't voice an opinion. He had no idea what they should do, really, and was still a little shell-shocked from the last time. He didn't want to offer an idea that might result in another building blowing up, or worse, and had absolutely zero confidence that any suggestion he made wouldn't do exactly that. So instead of answering, he just nodded a little in agreement with Eileen, who sounded pretty confident.
Pyro zipped up his bulletproof vest over his black t-shirt, stopping the zip under his collarbones. He'd warmed to the idea of those outfits, mostly when he'd been able to find shit in red, instead of the green camo stuff or all-black he'd been expecting. "Sooner ass-kicking always works for me."
Never mind that he was less likely to inadvertently blow something up outside. Probably.
"We're out of here, then," Illyana proclaimed. Dismissing her scrying mirror, she got to her feet and with a gesture, changed into her own uniform - a black bulletproof vest and black leather jeans with red jacket over it.
Nico had finally managed to pry his eyes apart, the curiosity of the dead souls around him and his self preservation taking over. He tried to look around as best he could without alerting the dumbasses around him that he was awake.
Smelly buffoon was carrying him towards what looked to be an old warehouse in the middle of freaking nowhere. There didn't seem to be any other buildings around, and the fence around the place looked pretty legit.
Awesome. Why couldn't he just shadow walk when he wanted to? He may be knocked out for the next 10 years because of it, but still.
Instead, he started reaching out, seeing who he could raise. There were enough skeletons in this closet to form a pretty solid army. He was just starting to figure out how many he could raise without completely knocking himself out cold when out of nowhere he saw a group of people appear.
"What the--"
Illyana's teleports were, if anything, even more disorienting than Fatale's had been, but Eileen had been through enough of them by now to recover quickly. A lot more quickly that the two apparent transients dragging the mutant kid toward the seemingly disused warehouse. They were close enough now for her to tell how legit that was; there was juice enough running through the place to power a small town, for all it looked like no one had accessed the place in years. Without speaking, the blond rose a few feet into the air, eyes flaring violet behind her silver mask. There were any number of ways she could take these idiots out, but she chose the option she would find most immediately satisfying--and would leave one leftover for the others. She wasn't that greedy, after all.
Eileen gestured, and one of the men was thrown suddenly and violently into the air in a wave of electromagnetic repulsion, the arm he'd been supporting torn from his grip.
Vance pushed, hard against the other one, blasting him back with solid force. He wanted to stop them, to help the kid break free, but he was still a little iffy on the 'actually hurting people' part. Well, hurting them badly, anyway.
Pyro, for his part, had no qualms hurting the fuckers. A flick of his wrist activated the device strapped on it, and he grew the small into a line of fire that streamed around the legs of the nearest jerkwad, setting the legs of his pants on fire.
Wasting no time, Illyana left the kidnappers to her teammates and ran over to the kid they'd been pulled away from. "Are you okay?" she asked, dropping to a crouch beside him.
Nico had recoiled away from the assholes as soon as it became clear shit was going down, because heck no was he going down with them. Happy to be away from them, but still too weak to drag his ass up, he sluggishly sat up from the ground. Man, that was gonna hurt in the morning. He warily eyed the girl who had approached him. He guessed he kind of owed them (except his dead army plan totally would have worked. You know, in a few days.) "I'm fine. Who are you guys?"
"We're The Brotherhood," Illyana replied proudly. She got to her feet and held out a hand. "Can you stand? If not, I can get you out of here."
"Introductions later," Eileen barked. "My asshole radar is pinging like a bitch." And she'd no sooner said as much, when a half-dozen men dressed in misleading mall-cop drab appeared from the side-entrance to the warehouse where Douchebag One and Douchebag Two had been dragging their captive mutant. They were all packing, but most of them seemed to have batons drawn, just then. Batons that crackled and sparked at the end, and hummed with electromagnetic song. Not something she wanted to meet up close, then.
"This probably goes without saying, but don't let 'em tag you with those clubs. I can't narrow down the wattage to the volt, but I'm pretty sure it'll sting like a motherfucker."
Pyro really didn't look worried at all. The flatscan fuckers didn't stand a chance against their combined firepower; they just didn't know they were toast yet. "Thanks for showing up, assholes," he greeted them. "I was afraid this might get boring."
He flicked his wrist as he said that last word, and sent three big fireballs at them in quick succession, hitting a couple of them and sending the other ones scrambling for cover. Divide and conquer, right, that was a thing? Splitting them up seemed like a good move, anyway.
Oh jeez. This was going from bad to worse really fast. Vance threw up a shield around them, just in case anything started getting any hairier.
Nico had barely gotten out "The brother--what?" when shit really started to hit the fan. He pushed himself up off the ground and figured, fuck being tired. He was gonna help these other mutants (he was kind of dying to know their powers) out. Reaching out, he started pulling up as many dead friends as possible.
"Don't get in the way of my guys!" Nico shouted out as a warning to the others. Hey, not everyone was probably accustomed to seeing the undead.
"What guys?" Illyana countered. She didn't wait for a reply, though - instead, she opened up a portal behind the guys with the sparking batons. A demon appeared and looked around, confused. "Knock them out!" Illyana shouted, and it smirked, then grabbed hold of the nearest guard and delivered a punch that ensured the guy wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.
Illyana's demon didn't seem to need much in the way of further encouragement; its awful face broke into a fang-lined travesty of a grin, and it clubbed another of the guards to the ground with a single swing of its scaled, claw-tipped arm. And when the first fucking cadaver pushed its way into the parking lot and began making for the melee, Eileen pretty much checked out of the fight. How much longer could it possibly go on, at this rate?
"Hey, Rasputin," she called, floating further into the air and mentally mapping the facility in front of them via its electrical wiring and the bioelectric harmonies of its occupants, "demons are one thing. But I absolutely draw the line at dead guys. On the plus side, if anybody happens to pass by and see this, they'll think we're either shooting a horror movie or a goddamn music video."
"I didn't know you did zombies too!" Pyro shouted over at Mage. But like fuck he was going to let her dead guys (and girls) have all the fun. He got a little more careful with his fire, though (and appreciated MB letting it through his shield), so the zombies wouldn't catch on fire. Instead of sending fireballs out, he directed a stream of flames to one fucking hostile, then another, letting their clothes catch on fire before moving on to the next one. It took more time, but it would let the others have some fun, too!
It was harder, to maintain a permeable field around them - one that would let things out, but not in - but it seemed like it was worth it. That way Pyro and Eileen and Illyana and...skeletons? Could handle the bad guys. Why were there skeletons? The kid they were here for had said to not get in the way of his guys, were zombies...his guys?
Life just got weirder every day.
Huh, demons were new, Nico had to marvel. But giving that other chick credit for his dead guys? Not so much. "Hey, better the dead guys fight than us. They're good, I promise." He could feel what little energy he had leaving, but he ignored it, watching with satisfaction as a guy who couldn't have been much older than Nico when he did took down a guard.
"They're awesome," Illyana said with conviction as she watched one tear into one of the guards. He could actually control the dead. That was...amazing didn't go far enough. "The zombies are his!" she shouted back to the others. "Are we going inside? I can pop back to Limbo and scry the place." After all Lance and Wanda's harping on the subject, she wasn't about to forget that part. Look first, go in after. Even if it did mean missing a few minutes of the fight.
"Hell yes, we're going inside," Eileen replied, in a tone that made it sound as though that had been the obvious choice the whole time. "I've got a rough idea of the layout, and where bodies are located, but if you can get us specifics, that would be fucking spectacular." She floated toward the door, letting the others take care of whatever guards remained, and shorted out the electronic lock with a thought. It swung open with a wave of her hand, and she beckoned the others inside. "C'mon, you bunch of slouches. It's been too long since we had some real goddamn exercise."
"Fuck yes," Pyro confirmed with enthusiasm, and walked over to Mage to give her a quick kiss, arm going around her waist before he walked towards the building, where Eileen beckoned. The remaining hostiles not on fire were being handled by the zombies, and he smirked at their rescue on his way. "Nice work, zombie boy."
Vance felt a twinge of fear - or was that regret? Both, maybe - as they moved to enter the building. Inside...inside was where everything had gone wrong last time.
He took a deep breath, this would be different. Vance dropped his shield, concentrating his telekinesis into rapid-fire telekinetic blasts that knocked a couple guards down hard enough to, at least temporarily, stay down.
"Are there more mutants in there?" He asked.
Zombie boy? Nico could have snorted. Awesome rep he had going.
"Alive or dead?" Nico asked, feeling out with what little energy he had left. He wasn't sure about these people, but hey, the enemy of his enemy, right?
He frowned grimly as he added, "Plenty of dead. I'm not much help on the alive front, sorry."
Illyana'd disappeared for a minute after Pyro'd headed into the building, but chose that moment to return in a circle of light beside the rest of the team. "One, upstairs, strapped down on a table. One guard with her, or maybe a doctor? About a dozen more guards, most of them converging on us, but there's one on the phone in what looked like a control room or something.
"I'll get the chatty Kathy," Eileen growled, Illyana's basic description being enough for her to narrow down the location with her electromagnetic sensitivity. "Whoever he's talking to, I don't think we want him to finish the conversation. You guys good for the rescue?"
"It'll be fun," Pyro confirmed, resisting the very strong urge to say he'd go with Eileen. She could handle one guy. This wouldn't be like last time.
Whatever this would be, hopefully uneventful (well, comparatively), Vance really didn't think 'fun' was the word he'd use. Still, he didn't say so. Instead, he just nodded. "We're good," Vance agreed.
Nico's mind was kind of fucked. People with super powers were appearing and disappearing and okay yeah, he knew they were like him--shit, maybe his tiredness/kidnapping was affecting his brain more than he thought. He blinked, letting some of his guys go down, and added, "Not sure how much help I'll be with living people."
"You said there were plenty of dead people, right?" Illyana asked. "Can you use them to corral the guards into one spot?" She looked over at Pyro and Vance. "I can give them a one way trip to Limbo while you're rescuing." She smirked. "I'll have them see if they can get some info out of them."
The others seemed to be getting the basics of a reasonably decent plan together, for all they were kinda making things up as they went along (and damn, she could already hear the lecture they were going to get from Lance when they got home). And nobody seemed to object to her taking care of Phone Guy. So, nodding, she spun in the air and shimmered from sight, speeding along close to the ceiling as she made her way to the familiar harmonies of a security hub.
"Oh, so you get to have all the fun with the guards," Pyro complained, although he didn't mean it, and was smirking at Mage. He turned to Vance. "You good to head upstairs with me, MB?" One doctor, one guard. Easy work for them, but if they got to rescue somebody else, it would be worth it.
Vance swallowed, but nodded again. He wasn't going to dwell on what the others were doing or might do. There wasn't time. "Sure thing, Pyro. Let's do it."
Nico felt around, and started pulling up as many dead guys as he could figure he, with his limited energy, could handle. With a frown, he noted that some of these people hadn't be dead that long. Just made it at all feel a little worse. One of his guys came up near him and approached Nico curiously with his head tilted.
"Take care of the guards," Nico instructed, watching as the dead guy (god, this kid couldn't have been any older than them), started to wander in the direction of the guards.
Illyana wrinkled her nose at Pyro and grinned, then waved a goodbye to him and Vance and turned back to the new kid, just in time to see one of his zombies approach. Her grin faded. The kid was no older than she was, and given the way he was dressed in surgical scrubs, had apparently been one of the test subjects. "Is there any way to bring them back to live?" she asked Nico. "And are you zombies going to need help? I can call a few demons."
At his teammate's confirmation, Pyro didn't wait any longer and turned to head inside. Balls of fire rushed towards the guards they met, but the idea wasn't to stick around and take them out; Mage and Zombie Boy were on it. The two of them only had to get upstairs, and he ran up the stairs two at a time, passing a small-ish ball of fire between his hands. Most doors on the first floor were open, and the rooms empty, but one of them was closed, and there were voices behind it. "Blast this open for us?" he asked Vance with a smirk. They could afford to make an entrance.
Easy to do, easier when he knew there was someone trapped inside. Still, Vance hesitated, if only for a moment, before he shoved. The door blew inward, coming off the hinges, as he made an entrance for them both.
The two figures inside both looked up as the once-secure door blasted inward on a wave of telekinetic force. One, strapped to a table and dressed in nondescript hospital scrubs, whimpered and closed her eyes tight, tear-streaked face scrunching in terror. The other did not seem visibly perturbed by the intrusion--and resembled nothing so much as a figure dredged from a fevered nightmare. He was tall, white lab coat contrasting sharply with the glistening black bodysuit beneath, like the carapace of some fantastically-large beetle. His skin, too, made a chalky contrast to oily black hair, slicked back from a high, unlined forehead. As he caught sight of Vance and Pyro in the hall, he grinned, a grotesque, too-wide expression, one that revealed an impossible multitude of unnaturally sharp teeth.
"Gentlemen," he mused, with the faintest hint of an English accent. "You're early."
A smile with too many teeth. It hadn't meant much to Pyro, but now he understood. Fuck, did he. And that fucker deserved to burn. "We're right on time," he answered, and sent a large fireball straight at the guy who could only be Essex.
This...this had to be him, right? Pale pale skin, too many teeth somehow, and he gave Vance goosebumps and a sinking feeling in his stomach. "You knew we were coming?"
A shimmering field of ruddy energy flickered into being around Essex as the fireball came within a few inches of his now-outstretched hand, and the flames dispersed harmlessly around the telekinetic shield. Now the teens could see that the tips of each of his fingers ended in bizarre, stiletto-fine points. His amusement did not appear to have been affected by the attack, and he offered Pyro a wink before addressing Vance's question. "Sooner or later, certainly," he said. "The Right is, after all, an extremely clumsy organization. It was only a matter of time."
He looked ruefully at the the pale, white-haired girl strapped down to the table next to him, one sleeve now faintly smoking where Pyro's fire had singed her gown. "I was just tidying up some loose ends, actually. Poor Izzie has given as much as she can to advance the species; further testing would be pointless, and letting her carry on in this condition would be nothing less than cruel. Euthanasia is the most rational option available to her, now." Essex half-turned to adjust one of the IV lines connected to the shivering test subject's wrists and neck slightly. "I'll be finished in just a moment."
What the shit! Pyro stared for a few precious seconds, giving the guy time to ramble on, but when he moved towards one of the IV lines, Pyro streamed a continuous rush of fire towards him, and sent a smaller flame towards the IV tubes, to melt them open and stop him from killing the girl. Izzie. "MB, get her out of there!"
Vance reached out, barely noticeable pink tendrils attempting to encircle and move the girl on the table. Gentle, gentle, he reminded himself through his panic. "What the heck is wrong with you?" He demanded of the Evil Teeth Guy.
"Wrong with me?" Essex repeated, seeming surprised. The fire again streaked around him without doing any noticeable damage. His expression did darken, however, as the IV lines withered and broke. "Well," he grunted, "so much for a painless death." His dark eyes glanced toward the two Brotherhood teens, and he waved a hand casually.
"Sleep, children," he ordered, his command bolstered by waves of telepathic force. "You've inconvenienced me enough for one outing."
The fire streaming towards Essex went out as Pyro dropped to the floor, unconscious. Only the flames that had caught on to something remained now, uncontrolled by anyone.
Beside him, Vance collapsed, his tendrils fading into nothing as he hit the floor.
"That's better," the pale figure muttered to himself, then turned back to the girl again. "Apologies for the interruption, my dear," he said, pointed fingers combing through her lank hair with a gentleness that was nothing but jarring, given its source. "The pain will soon end." His grip tightened around her jaw. "I promise."
-----
Nico's jaw clenched at Yana's question. Man had he tried to bring them back. He tried so hard. "They're dead. No way back," he told her a little tersely, concentrating his gaze on the guards going down.
But...wait. He could feel life leaving. "Someone's dying."
"Who? And where?" Illyana demanded. She gestured towards the guards and negligently opened portals underneath them to send them off to Limbo. The demons could deal with them there.
Nico frowned and shook his head. "Don't recognize them but...near here." He tried to concentrate harder and finally said, "Follow me."
Illyana followed him up the stairs, to a door that showed every sign of Vance's powers.
The room--a small testing area, to all appearances--was occupied only with bodies. The two on the floor, Pyro and Vance, were still breathing regularly, despite the awkward positions in which they'd collapsed. The third, a girl not much older than Illyana, was restrained on a gurney, the remains of several IV lines leaking fluids onto the floor clustered around her like broken spider webs, her neck twisted at an unnatural angle. She was still.
There was no one else to be seen.
"Oh my-" Illyana broke off and ran inside, dropping to her knees beside Pyro. Who was breathing, at least. She let out a sigh of relief and turned towards Nico. "Is Vance ok? And do you still feel anyone dying?"
Nico knelt next to the other guy (Vance, he was guessing). He seemed out, but okay. "He's ok." Then, grimly, he added, "No one's dying anymore...but she is dead."
He got up from next to Vance and walked up to the girl on the gurney. With a frown, he gently moved her head back to a more neutral position. There. Better.
Illyana watched him, her eyes clouded, then pulled out her phone and called Eileen. "Can you get back here? Pyro and Vance are out cold and I'm not sure why. I think we should go."
----
Standing over the unconscious guard, Eileen wondered if she should try to catch up to the others, or just make her way to the exit--based on the feel of the harmonies, the guards were all incapacitated or in Limbo, and there weren't any kids left to attempt to flee. There had been an odd sort of ... flicker a second ago, like a teleportation event, but she had gotten kind of used to weirdness at these Right horror shows. When her phone buzzed inside the long coat she wore over her body armor on missions, she checked the caller briefly before accepting and putting the phone to her ear.
Huh. Illyana didn't really sound like herself. And what did she mean out cold? Better to ask in person, probably.
"On my way," she replied shortly, taking to the air again and flitting down the deserted hallway.
----
Pyro stirred, then came to of a sudden at his last memories flooded back in. He sat up abruptly, wrist flipping so he could hold a fireball. What the fuck was he doing on the floor? He looked at Mage, MB who was also waking up, zombie boy and the table with that girl they were going to save. "What happened?" he asked, dismissing the fireball and pushing up to his feet. His heart rose to his throat as he stepped over to the girl. "Is she okay?"
Nico considered making her wake. But it would be hollow, and he doubted they would appreciate seeing a corpse in place of the girl. So instead, Nico shook his head and answered, "She died."
Vance pushed himself up from where he'd landed almost face-down on the floor. Wait. The girl! He jerked upright, and looked over and....quickly looked away again. She clearly was gone. And that man, he'd...he had murdered her. Right there. Right in this room. And for what?
He stood, and swallowed down his anger on the girl's behalf. The bad guy had been here, right? What if he'd left clues? Vance started to look around.
"And we don't know what happened. He felt someone dying, so we came and you were on the floor, unconscious," Yana supplied. "I called Eileen, she's on her way back. We got rid of the guards."
"Fuck!" A fireball crashed against the wall, safe from singing anyone, but its heat could still be felt by all in the room, before it evaporated harmlessly.
Like everything Pyro had fucking tried against the guy. Fucking harmless.
"Okay, what the shit did I miss?" Eileen demanded as she floated through the demolished remains of the door frame. She blinked as she entered the room, visible as a brief flicker of the violet glow of her eyes behind her silver mask. She looked from the blackened, smoldering circle on the wall, to the ... apparently dead girl strapped to the gurney, to her variously traumatized teammates (plus the new guy).
"... I'm guessing it was a lot."
"She didn't make it," Nico said hollowly, nodding towards the table. Honestly, he wasn't sure what more there was to say. Except maybe, "Bad guy got away."
The new kid's tone struck a chord with Vance, and he felt a momentary pang. But it didn't distract him from the files he had seen on the desk as he walked. Vance grabbed a couple, and began to flip through them. "Might not have gotten away real clean though," he mused.
"Bring it along, maybe? And..." She paused and looked at the girl's body. It was sad she'd died, but...it was also pretty obvious they hadn't had anything to do with it. She pulled out her phone and took a picture, then took another of the room, making sure not to get any of the Brotherhood in the shot. "For Pietro," she explained. "Everyone ready to go?"
Fuck yes. Pyro didn't bother replying out loud, but he turned back to Mage, more than ready to get the fuck out of here. The thought of leaving the girl behind for flatscans to find made it all even worse, but what else were they supposed to do?
"More than," Eileen chimed in. "This excursion got old real fucking quick." She drifted over by Vance, and started peering at the papers over his shoulder.
"Do you want..." Nico hesitated, looking at the girl on the table. He wasn't used to his friends being so out in the open. "Do you want me to have her bury herself?" He was running on fumes. Getting her to do it would probably make him pass out again. But hey, seemed like the right thing to do, and they didn't need to know that. Wasn't like he was going with them anyways.
"I can do it," Vance offered. She deserved a proper burial, and shoving dirt around would be an easy thing with his telekinesis. He handed Eileen the file folders he had grabbed.
"Okay, then. First stop, outside." Illyana gestured for everyone to move in closer, and called up a stepping disk, offering Nico a faint, tired smile. "We'll explain everything there."
Nico was hungry. This wasn't new--he was kind of always hungry. There wasn't exactly an oversupply of food on the streets of New York (not that he would really trust food that had been left there, anyways).
Still though, it had been almost twelve hours since he had last eaten and he was hungry . He sat against a wall in his alley (aka the alley he had managed to creep the other homeless guy into giving out) and bounced his foot on the pavement. Where were his friends?
He guessed it maybe wasn't normal for a guy's 'friends' to be undead rodents currently scavenging food. But hey, whatever worked right? The dead were way less complicated than the living, that was for damn sure. Besides, they knew the city way better than Nico, and knew how to not get caught. (Nico had ended up in New York after a shadow-travel-fluke that he was not real eager to repeat, seeing as he passed out right after and was mugged while unconscious of the $20 in his possession.)
Hearing a sound, over the rumble of his stomach, Nico grinned and stood up, brushing off his worn jeans. Lunch time!
They weren't paying him enough for this.
Randy Ballista shook the fucking zombified rat that was scuttling over his foot to the curb and shuddered. Mutants were bad enough. Fucking freaky mutants who made zombie rats were - he didn't even have a word for that, but he was holding out for double the normal bounty for bringing this one in.
Silently, he waved his arm, gesturing for Trent to head up the fire escape for a better vantage point, then headed into the alley. He looked, he knew, like just another homeless guy (which was what he and Trent had been, right up until the Right had offered them cash to keep an eye out or mutant kids on the streets, and who better than them to do it?) "Hey kid, you see a freaky-ass rat run through here?" he asked.
Nico froze, the smile sliding off his face. He reached for his pocket knife, eyes bouncing around the alley looking for a way out. He didn't know who this guy was, but he didn't seem like it'd be anything good.
"Aww c'mon kid, don't be like that," Randy whined, just to give Trent time to get into position. "I'm just sayin', I saw this rat, right? Looked like something straight out of a zombie movie. I'm thinking it's the start of that zombie apocalypse, like on Walking Dead, am I right?"
"Maybe you should get your eyes checked," Nico told him coldly, keeping his face blank. He reached out but all he could find nearby were more dead rodents and a dead cat. Not really much in the way of an undead army.
Besides, if he tried to raise much he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to keep it up.
"Maybe you should just say good night," Randy countered as Trent's tranq dart hit the kid in the side of the neck. Huh. Well, that wasn't so bad after all. Then he remembered the zombified rat and shuddered. Yeah. He was still going for double. They earned it.
Nico felt the dart hit him and acted on instinct, pulling it out and throwing it at the nearest guy. He could feel himself getting woozy but fuck that. He called on his friends and gasped out, "Eat shit, shit head." as he sunk to the ground, vision turning black.
Randy was smirking at the kid's reply when he felt the first bite. "FUCK!" he shouted as he looked down to see a dozen zombie rats around his feet, the closest of which were already gnawing at his shoes.
He was still trying to shake them off his foot when the cat landed on his head.
______________
"I felt like we had something for a second," Illyana said without looking up from her scrying mirror.
Forehead furrowing, she tried to focus the image. In theory, it could be working - they'd been trying for days to pair up her scrying mirror with Eileen's ability to hone in on mutants in a specific area. Technically, the similiarity principle should apply - but seeing as it had never been done beore, she wasn't sure now, and there'd been a lot of experimentation. Still, this was the first time they'd gotten anything - she really didn't want to give up on it now.
"Are you getting anything?" she asked.
"I'm getting fucking irritated," Eileen replied, floating cross-legged in the air with her eyes glowing a vibrant purple. "Does that count?" None of that irritation was directed toward Illyana, specifically; in theory, pairing magic with electromagnetic detection seemed like it should absolutely be a thing that could work. The fact that after several days of trying they were still coming up bupkis was taking a heavy toll on her notoriously limited patience. "Maybe we should call it quits before I burn out somebody's nervous system out of--"
The blond started suddenly, luminous eyes widening. "Wait! There! I'm sure I got something that time." What kind of something, she couldn't begin to say. But it had the definite earmarks of a mutant harmony.
"Okay, hang on!" Illyana stared at the mirror and concentrated on focusing in on the current image, which was showing a part of New York she was almost positive she'd seen before. The picture began zooming in, until it was showing a homeless guy who was...
"Umm,is it me, or does that cat on the guy's head look kind of, y'know, dead?" Illyana asked, hoping Eileen would provide a second opinion. Either way, there was a kid on the ground, unconscious, and she was willing to bet he was the mutant, not the guy being attacked by undead animals.
"Look, nothing," Eileen replied, mouth twisting up as she got a better grasp of the general harmonies in the area. "That cat is definitely dead. So are the rats. Unless you call magic bullshit, I'm definitely comfortable labeling this a mutant phenomenon." Her eyes narrowed. "In which case, there's a couple of flatscan douchnozzles in that alley desperately in need of an ass kicking."
"It's...I don't think it's magic," Illyana hedged. She couldn't really be sure without actually, physically, being there, but while she knew spells that would animate the dead, it didn't feel like one of those, somehow. "I'm going to tag the kid; that way if anything happens, we'll be able to find him. Want to see who's around?" She closed her eyes and got ready to cast a spell on the unconscious figure. Hopefully it would be strong enough to track, even if she cast it here on Earth. She didn't want to chance losing the connection by taking everything to Limbo.
"Two flatscans and a whole mess of New York roadkill," Eileen reported, nose wrinkling. "Lemme know when you've got the kid tagged--this could be a lead on the Right. Or some other heinous fucking mutant-exploitation program we haven't caught wind of yet."
Distracted, Illyana nodded acknowledgement - then slumped a little as she completed the spell, pouring energy into it. "Got it. I should be able to track him anywhere." She looked up at Eileen. "Who's around for a rescue?"
"I've been cooped up in here with you, scanning a mirror all morning," Eileen grumbled. "Hell if I know who's around. Let's go scrounge up whoever's still here. I'm pretty sure between you, me, zombie kid, and even the wimpiest member of the Brotherhood, we can sort these fuckers out. Whoever the hell they are."
"I can get us there, but most of my magic's going to be wrapped up in the tracker spell," Illyana admitted as she got to her feet. "Maybe a couple of people wouldn't be a bad idea."
-------
Nico came to and the first thing he noticed was the smell. One of the assholes who nabbed him was carrying him and damn, he smelled worse than Nico. And Nico had been living on the streets.
He tried to pry open his eyes, which was a real effort. Giving up on that for the moment, he instead reached out. Wow...there was a lot of dead people here.
Where the fuck had they taken him?
"They've moved him," Illyana complained as she finished scrying for the tracer spell she'd put on the unconscious zombie summoner. Frowning, she gestured for the others to come closer so they could see the mirror. "Looks like they're taking him inside somewhere. Do we want to catch them outside?"
"I would prefer to kick their asses sooner rather than later," piped up Eileen, changed now into the modified combat gear she'd cobbled together and a newer iteration of the ankle-length purple coat she'd always favored on missions. "So outside works for me. Of course, that shouldn't stop us from busting up the place once we're there."
Vance shifted a little awkwardly in his kevlar vest - it felt strange, to wear it, it really wasn't comfortable - and didn't voice an opinion. He had no idea what they should do, really, and was still a little shell-shocked from the last time. He didn't want to offer an idea that might result in another building blowing up, or worse, and had absolutely zero confidence that any suggestion he made wouldn't do exactly that. So instead of answering, he just nodded a little in agreement with Eileen, who sounded pretty confident.
Pyro zipped up his bulletproof vest over his black t-shirt, stopping the zip under his collarbones. He'd warmed to the idea of those outfits, mostly when he'd been able to find shit in red, instead of the green camo stuff or all-black he'd been expecting. "Sooner ass-kicking always works for me."
Never mind that he was less likely to inadvertently blow something up outside. Probably.
"We're out of here, then," Illyana proclaimed. Dismissing her scrying mirror, she got to her feet and with a gesture, changed into her own uniform - a black bulletproof vest and black leather jeans with red jacket over it.
Nico had finally managed to pry his eyes apart, the curiosity of the dead souls around him and his self preservation taking over. He tried to look around as best he could without alerting the dumbasses around him that he was awake.
Smelly buffoon was carrying him towards what looked to be an old warehouse in the middle of freaking nowhere. There didn't seem to be any other buildings around, and the fence around the place looked pretty legit.
Awesome. Why couldn't he just shadow walk when he wanted to? He may be knocked out for the next 10 years because of it, but still.
Instead, he started reaching out, seeing who he could raise. There were enough skeletons in this closet to form a pretty solid army. He was just starting to figure out how many he could raise without completely knocking himself out cold when out of nowhere he saw a group of people appear.
"What the--"
Illyana's teleports were, if anything, even more disorienting than Fatale's had been, but Eileen had been through enough of them by now to recover quickly. A lot more quickly that the two apparent transients dragging the mutant kid toward the seemingly disused warehouse. They were close enough now for her to tell how legit that was; there was juice enough running through the place to power a small town, for all it looked like no one had accessed the place in years. Without speaking, the blond rose a few feet into the air, eyes flaring violet behind her silver mask. There were any number of ways she could take these idiots out, but she chose the option she would find most immediately satisfying--and would leave one leftover for the others. She wasn't that greedy, after all.
Eileen gestured, and one of the men was thrown suddenly and violently into the air in a wave of electromagnetic repulsion, the arm he'd been supporting torn from his grip.
Vance pushed, hard against the other one, blasting him back with solid force. He wanted to stop them, to help the kid break free, but he was still a little iffy on the 'actually hurting people' part. Well, hurting them badly, anyway.
Pyro, for his part, had no qualms hurting the fuckers. A flick of his wrist activated the device strapped on it, and he grew the small into a line of fire that streamed around the legs of the nearest jerkwad, setting the legs of his pants on fire.
Wasting no time, Illyana left the kidnappers to her teammates and ran over to the kid they'd been pulled away from. "Are you okay?" she asked, dropping to a crouch beside him.
Nico had recoiled away from the assholes as soon as it became clear shit was going down, because heck no was he going down with them. Happy to be away from them, but still too weak to drag his ass up, he sluggishly sat up from the ground. Man, that was gonna hurt in the morning. He warily eyed the girl who had approached him. He guessed he kind of owed them (except his dead army plan totally would have worked. You know, in a few days.) "I'm fine. Who are you guys?"
"We're The Brotherhood," Illyana replied proudly. She got to her feet and held out a hand. "Can you stand? If not, I can get you out of here."
"Introductions later," Eileen barked. "My asshole radar is pinging like a bitch." And she'd no sooner said as much, when a half-dozen men dressed in misleading mall-cop drab appeared from the side-entrance to the warehouse where Douchebag One and Douchebag Two had been dragging their captive mutant. They were all packing, but most of them seemed to have batons drawn, just then. Batons that crackled and sparked at the end, and hummed with electromagnetic song. Not something she wanted to meet up close, then.
"This probably goes without saying, but don't let 'em tag you with those clubs. I can't narrow down the wattage to the volt, but I'm pretty sure it'll sting like a motherfucker."
Pyro really didn't look worried at all. The flatscan fuckers didn't stand a chance against their combined firepower; they just didn't know they were toast yet. "Thanks for showing up, assholes," he greeted them. "I was afraid this might get boring."
He flicked his wrist as he said that last word, and sent three big fireballs at them in quick succession, hitting a couple of them and sending the other ones scrambling for cover. Divide and conquer, right, that was a thing? Splitting them up seemed like a good move, anyway.
Oh jeez. This was going from bad to worse really fast. Vance threw up a shield around them, just in case anything started getting any hairier.
Nico had barely gotten out "The brother--what?" when shit really started to hit the fan. He pushed himself up off the ground and figured, fuck being tired. He was gonna help these other mutants (he was kind of dying to know their powers) out. Reaching out, he started pulling up as many dead friends as possible.
"Don't get in the way of my guys!" Nico shouted out as a warning to the others. Hey, not everyone was probably accustomed to seeing the undead.
"What guys?" Illyana countered. She didn't wait for a reply, though - instead, she opened up a portal behind the guys with the sparking batons. A demon appeared and looked around, confused. "Knock them out!" Illyana shouted, and it smirked, then grabbed hold of the nearest guard and delivered a punch that ensured the guy wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.
Illyana's demon didn't seem to need much in the way of further encouragement; its awful face broke into a fang-lined travesty of a grin, and it clubbed another of the guards to the ground with a single swing of its scaled, claw-tipped arm. And when the first fucking cadaver pushed its way into the parking lot and began making for the melee, Eileen pretty much checked out of the fight. How much longer could it possibly go on, at this rate?
"Hey, Rasputin," she called, floating further into the air and mentally mapping the facility in front of them via its electrical wiring and the bioelectric harmonies of its occupants, "demons are one thing. But I absolutely draw the line at dead guys. On the plus side, if anybody happens to pass by and see this, they'll think we're either shooting a horror movie or a goddamn music video."
"I didn't know you did zombies too!" Pyro shouted over at Mage. But like fuck he was going to let her dead guys (and girls) have all the fun. He got a little more careful with his fire, though (and appreciated MB letting it through his shield), so the zombies wouldn't catch on fire. Instead of sending fireballs out, he directed a stream of flames to one fucking hostile, then another, letting their clothes catch on fire before moving on to the next one. It took more time, but it would let the others have some fun, too!
It was harder, to maintain a permeable field around them - one that would let things out, but not in - but it seemed like it was worth it. That way Pyro and Eileen and Illyana and...skeletons? Could handle the bad guys. Why were there skeletons? The kid they were here for had said to not get in the way of his guys, were zombies...his guys?
Life just got weirder every day.
Huh, demons were new, Nico had to marvel. But giving that other chick credit for his dead guys? Not so much. "Hey, better the dead guys fight than us. They're good, I promise." He could feel what little energy he had leaving, but he ignored it, watching with satisfaction as a guy who couldn't have been much older than Nico when he did took down a guard.
"They're awesome," Illyana said with conviction as she watched one tear into one of the guards. He could actually control the dead. That was...amazing didn't go far enough. "The zombies are his!" she shouted back to the others. "Are we going inside? I can pop back to Limbo and scry the place." After all Lance and Wanda's harping on the subject, she wasn't about to forget that part. Look first, go in after. Even if it did mean missing a few minutes of the fight.
"Hell yes, we're going inside," Eileen replied, in a tone that made it sound as though that had been the obvious choice the whole time. "I've got a rough idea of the layout, and where bodies are located, but if you can get us specifics, that would be fucking spectacular." She floated toward the door, letting the others take care of whatever guards remained, and shorted out the electronic lock with a thought. It swung open with a wave of her hand, and she beckoned the others inside. "C'mon, you bunch of slouches. It's been too long since we had some real goddamn exercise."
"Fuck yes," Pyro confirmed with enthusiasm, and walked over to Mage to give her a quick kiss, arm going around her waist before he walked towards the building, where Eileen beckoned. The remaining hostiles not on fire were being handled by the zombies, and he smirked at their rescue on his way. "Nice work, zombie boy."
Vance felt a twinge of fear - or was that regret? Both, maybe - as they moved to enter the building. Inside...inside was where everything had gone wrong last time.
He took a deep breath, this would be different. Vance dropped his shield, concentrating his telekinesis into rapid-fire telekinetic blasts that knocked a couple guards down hard enough to, at least temporarily, stay down.
"Are there more mutants in there?" He asked.
Zombie boy? Nico could have snorted. Awesome rep he had going.
"Alive or dead?" Nico asked, feeling out with what little energy he had left. He wasn't sure about these people, but hey, the enemy of his enemy, right?
He frowned grimly as he added, "Plenty of dead. I'm not much help on the alive front, sorry."
Illyana'd disappeared for a minute after Pyro'd headed into the building, but chose that moment to return in a circle of light beside the rest of the team. "One, upstairs, strapped down on a table. One guard with her, or maybe a doctor? About a dozen more guards, most of them converging on us, but there's one on the phone in what looked like a control room or something.
"I'll get the chatty Kathy," Eileen growled, Illyana's basic description being enough for her to narrow down the location with her electromagnetic sensitivity. "Whoever he's talking to, I don't think we want him to finish the conversation. You guys good for the rescue?"
"It'll be fun," Pyro confirmed, resisting the very strong urge to say he'd go with Eileen. She could handle one guy. This wouldn't be like last time.
Whatever this would be, hopefully uneventful (well, comparatively), Vance really didn't think 'fun' was the word he'd use. Still, he didn't say so. Instead, he just nodded. "We're good," Vance agreed.
Nico's mind was kind of fucked. People with super powers were appearing and disappearing and okay yeah, he knew they were like him--shit, maybe his tiredness/kidnapping was affecting his brain more than he thought. He blinked, letting some of his guys go down, and added, "Not sure how much help I'll be with living people."
"You said there were plenty of dead people, right?" Illyana asked. "Can you use them to corral the guards into one spot?" She looked over at Pyro and Vance. "I can give them a one way trip to Limbo while you're rescuing." She smirked. "I'll have them see if they can get some info out of them."
The others seemed to be getting the basics of a reasonably decent plan together, for all they were kinda making things up as they went along (and damn, she could already hear the lecture they were going to get from Lance when they got home). And nobody seemed to object to her taking care of Phone Guy. So, nodding, she spun in the air and shimmered from sight, speeding along close to the ceiling as she made her way to the familiar harmonies of a security hub.
"Oh, so you get to have all the fun with the guards," Pyro complained, although he didn't mean it, and was smirking at Mage. He turned to Vance. "You good to head upstairs with me, MB?" One doctor, one guard. Easy work for them, but if they got to rescue somebody else, it would be worth it.
Vance swallowed, but nodded again. He wasn't going to dwell on what the others were doing or might do. There wasn't time. "Sure thing, Pyro. Let's do it."
Nico felt around, and started pulling up as many dead guys as he could figure he, with his limited energy, could handle. With a frown, he noted that some of these people hadn't be dead that long. Just made it at all feel a little worse. One of his guys came up near him and approached Nico curiously with his head tilted.
"Take care of the guards," Nico instructed, watching as the dead guy (god, this kid couldn't have been any older than them), started to wander in the direction of the guards.
Illyana wrinkled her nose at Pyro and grinned, then waved a goodbye to him and Vance and turned back to the new kid, just in time to see one of his zombies approach. Her grin faded. The kid was no older than she was, and given the way he was dressed in surgical scrubs, had apparently been one of the test subjects. "Is there any way to bring them back to live?" she asked Nico. "And are you zombies going to need help? I can call a few demons."
At his teammate's confirmation, Pyro didn't wait any longer and turned to head inside. Balls of fire rushed towards the guards they met, but the idea wasn't to stick around and take them out; Mage and Zombie Boy were on it. The two of them only had to get upstairs, and he ran up the stairs two at a time, passing a small-ish ball of fire between his hands. Most doors on the first floor were open, and the rooms empty, but one of them was closed, and there were voices behind it. "Blast this open for us?" he asked Vance with a smirk. They could afford to make an entrance.
Easy to do, easier when he knew there was someone trapped inside. Still, Vance hesitated, if only for a moment, before he shoved. The door blew inward, coming off the hinges, as he made an entrance for them both.
The two figures inside both looked up as the once-secure door blasted inward on a wave of telekinetic force. One, strapped to a table and dressed in nondescript hospital scrubs, whimpered and closed her eyes tight, tear-streaked face scrunching in terror. The other did not seem visibly perturbed by the intrusion--and resembled nothing so much as a figure dredged from a fevered nightmare. He was tall, white lab coat contrasting sharply with the glistening black bodysuit beneath, like the carapace of some fantastically-large beetle. His skin, too, made a chalky contrast to oily black hair, slicked back from a high, unlined forehead. As he caught sight of Vance and Pyro in the hall, he grinned, a grotesque, too-wide expression, one that revealed an impossible multitude of unnaturally sharp teeth.
"Gentlemen," he mused, with the faintest hint of an English accent. "You're early."
A smile with too many teeth. It hadn't meant much to Pyro, but now he understood. Fuck, did he. And that fucker deserved to burn. "We're right on time," he answered, and sent a large fireball straight at the guy who could only be Essex.
This...this had to be him, right? Pale pale skin, too many teeth somehow, and he gave Vance goosebumps and a sinking feeling in his stomach. "You knew we were coming?"
A shimmering field of ruddy energy flickered into being around Essex as the fireball came within a few inches of his now-outstretched hand, and the flames dispersed harmlessly around the telekinetic shield. Now the teens could see that the tips of each of his fingers ended in bizarre, stiletto-fine points. His amusement did not appear to have been affected by the attack, and he offered Pyro a wink before addressing Vance's question. "Sooner or later, certainly," he said. "The Right is, after all, an extremely clumsy organization. It was only a matter of time."
He looked ruefully at the the pale, white-haired girl strapped down to the table next to him, one sleeve now faintly smoking where Pyro's fire had singed her gown. "I was just tidying up some loose ends, actually. Poor Izzie has given as much as she can to advance the species; further testing would be pointless, and letting her carry on in this condition would be nothing less than cruel. Euthanasia is the most rational option available to her, now." Essex half-turned to adjust one of the IV lines connected to the shivering test subject's wrists and neck slightly. "I'll be finished in just a moment."
What the shit! Pyro stared for a few precious seconds, giving the guy time to ramble on, but when he moved towards one of the IV lines, Pyro streamed a continuous rush of fire towards him, and sent a smaller flame towards the IV tubes, to melt them open and stop him from killing the girl. Izzie. "MB, get her out of there!"
Vance reached out, barely noticeable pink tendrils attempting to encircle and move the girl on the table. Gentle, gentle, he reminded himself through his panic. "What the heck is wrong with you?" He demanded of the Evil Teeth Guy.
"Wrong with me?" Essex repeated, seeming surprised. The fire again streaked around him without doing any noticeable damage. His expression did darken, however, as the IV lines withered and broke. "Well," he grunted, "so much for a painless death." His dark eyes glanced toward the two Brotherhood teens, and he waved a hand casually.
"Sleep, children," he ordered, his command bolstered by waves of telepathic force. "You've inconvenienced me enough for one outing."
The fire streaming towards Essex went out as Pyro dropped to the floor, unconscious. Only the flames that had caught on to something remained now, uncontrolled by anyone.
Beside him, Vance collapsed, his tendrils fading into nothing as he hit the floor.
"That's better," the pale figure muttered to himself, then turned back to the girl again. "Apologies for the interruption, my dear," he said, pointed fingers combing through her lank hair with a gentleness that was nothing but jarring, given its source. "The pain will soon end." His grip tightened around her jaw. "I promise."
-----
Nico's jaw clenched at Yana's question. Man had he tried to bring them back. He tried so hard. "They're dead. No way back," he told her a little tersely, concentrating his gaze on the guards going down.
But...wait. He could feel life leaving. "Someone's dying."
"Who? And where?" Illyana demanded. She gestured towards the guards and negligently opened portals underneath them to send them off to Limbo. The demons could deal with them there.
Nico frowned and shook his head. "Don't recognize them but...near here." He tried to concentrate harder and finally said, "Follow me."
Illyana followed him up the stairs, to a door that showed every sign of Vance's powers.
The room--a small testing area, to all appearances--was occupied only with bodies. The two on the floor, Pyro and Vance, were still breathing regularly, despite the awkward positions in which they'd collapsed. The third, a girl not much older than Illyana, was restrained on a gurney, the remains of several IV lines leaking fluids onto the floor clustered around her like broken spider webs, her neck twisted at an unnatural angle. She was still.
There was no one else to be seen.
"Oh my-" Illyana broke off and ran inside, dropping to her knees beside Pyro. Who was breathing, at least. She let out a sigh of relief and turned towards Nico. "Is Vance ok? And do you still feel anyone dying?"
Nico knelt next to the other guy (Vance, he was guessing). He seemed out, but okay. "He's ok." Then, grimly, he added, "No one's dying anymore...but she is dead."
He got up from next to Vance and walked up to the girl on the gurney. With a frown, he gently moved her head back to a more neutral position. There. Better.
Illyana watched him, her eyes clouded, then pulled out her phone and called Eileen. "Can you get back here? Pyro and Vance are out cold and I'm not sure why. I think we should go."
----
Standing over the unconscious guard, Eileen wondered if she should try to catch up to the others, or just make her way to the exit--based on the feel of the harmonies, the guards were all incapacitated or in Limbo, and there weren't any kids left to attempt to flee. There had been an odd sort of ... flicker a second ago, like a teleportation event, but she had gotten kind of used to weirdness at these Right horror shows. When her phone buzzed inside the long coat she wore over her body armor on missions, she checked the caller briefly before accepting and putting the phone to her ear.
Huh. Illyana didn't really sound like herself. And what did she mean out cold? Better to ask in person, probably.
"On my way," she replied shortly, taking to the air again and flitting down the deserted hallway.
----
Pyro stirred, then came to of a sudden at his last memories flooded back in. He sat up abruptly, wrist flipping so he could hold a fireball. What the fuck was he doing on the floor? He looked at Mage, MB who was also waking up, zombie boy and the table with that girl they were going to save. "What happened?" he asked, dismissing the fireball and pushing up to his feet. His heart rose to his throat as he stepped over to the girl. "Is she okay?"
Nico considered making her wake. But it would be hollow, and he doubted they would appreciate seeing a corpse in place of the girl. So instead, Nico shook his head and answered, "She died."
Vance pushed himself up from where he'd landed almost face-down on the floor. Wait. The girl! He jerked upright, and looked over and....quickly looked away again. She clearly was gone. And that man, he'd...he had murdered her. Right there. Right in this room. And for what?
He stood, and swallowed down his anger on the girl's behalf. The bad guy had been here, right? What if he'd left clues? Vance started to look around.
"And we don't know what happened. He felt someone dying, so we came and you were on the floor, unconscious," Yana supplied. "I called Eileen, she's on her way back. We got rid of the guards."
"Fuck!" A fireball crashed against the wall, safe from singing anyone, but its heat could still be felt by all in the room, before it evaporated harmlessly.
Like everything Pyro had fucking tried against the guy. Fucking harmless.
"Okay, what the shit did I miss?" Eileen demanded as she floated through the demolished remains of the door frame. She blinked as she entered the room, visible as a brief flicker of the violet glow of her eyes behind her silver mask. She looked from the blackened, smoldering circle on the wall, to the ... apparently dead girl strapped to the gurney, to her variously traumatized teammates (plus the new guy).
"... I'm guessing it was a lot."
"She didn't make it," Nico said hollowly, nodding towards the table. Honestly, he wasn't sure what more there was to say. Except maybe, "Bad guy got away."
The new kid's tone struck a chord with Vance, and he felt a momentary pang. But it didn't distract him from the files he had seen on the desk as he walked. Vance grabbed a couple, and began to flip through them. "Might not have gotten away real clean though," he mused.
"Bring it along, maybe? And..." She paused and looked at the girl's body. It was sad she'd died, but...it was also pretty obvious they hadn't had anything to do with it. She pulled out her phone and took a picture, then took another of the room, making sure not to get any of the Brotherhood in the shot. "For Pietro," she explained. "Everyone ready to go?"
Fuck yes. Pyro didn't bother replying out loud, but he turned back to Mage, more than ready to get the fuck out of here. The thought of leaving the girl behind for flatscans to find made it all even worse, but what else were they supposed to do?
"More than," Eileen chimed in. "This excursion got old real fucking quick." She drifted over by Vance, and started peering at the papers over his shoulder.
"Do you want..." Nico hesitated, looking at the girl on the table. He wasn't used to his friends being so out in the open. "Do you want me to have her bury herself?" He was running on fumes. Getting her to do it would probably make him pass out again. But hey, seemed like the right thing to do, and they didn't need to know that. Wasn't like he was going with them anyways.
"I can do it," Vance offered. She deserved a proper burial, and shoving dirt around would be an easy thing with his telekinesis. He handed Eileen the file folders he had grabbed.
"Okay, then. First stop, outside." Illyana gestured for everyone to move in closer, and called up a stepping disk, offering Nico a faint, tired smile. "We'll explain everything there."
