"I wanted ya to see this is..." she said, and a match's head could be
heard striking against a nearby object. Fire that illuminated the dank,
wet sewer tunnels, was soon to follow that cackling strike, and then much
was visible to the eye.
In particular, were two shadows. One small and plain, the other large
and deformed as if a tree, appeared on the tunnel walls, and it looked
as if those very shadows were swaying to a dead rhythm.
A rhythm which was ominous to the coming tides...
"Why?" the girl's young and trembling voice finally dared to ask as she
up from the sewage that swished in thick chunks and masses grossly around
her feet.
Her eyes were adjusting with the aid of the light presented, and she looked
up and around as deep through the tunnels as she could until the fiery,
indignant dancing light ended and the deaf shadows once again began.
"'Cuz this was where you were conceived," her captor answered quite
simply, pausing as she thought back to the mention event horizon. She
snickered cleverly and continued with a breath, "This was where the other
monster in me was conceived."
"But I'm not a monster!" the youth was quick to cry in defiance,
and her breathing began to speed up with her. As if slamming into one
of the tunnel's sturdy, brick walls, her breathing halted as what followed
was another beat of silence from her captor.
It was a silence not unlike the one that came before. Awkward... yet,
almost peaceful if only it would remain and the threat that was gripping
her was forever gone. However, that wasn't the case here, nor would it
ever be. It would end the following moment.
"You will be..." she finally said as she lifted the match to the side
of her face and cocked her head to the side meekly. The flame at the end
of the match flickered off her cracked and scarred pink skin, and Marrow
smiled almost gently. "You will be."
It was then, after seeing that broken and terrified expression on Sherry
Redfield's young, tainted face, that her mother blew out the match's flame
and the darkness returned.
The darkness
parted in their immediate area as two glowing orbs of moisture appeared,
and a flashlight suddenly sparked to life.
"Talk about luck, huh?" Iceman snorted a sort of chuckle as he started
to slosh through the bacteria enriched waste. His eyes were glowing that
same bluish aura of moisture that partially lit up the desolate void of
darkness through the dank tunnels.
In actuality, it was just a side affect from using his powers to detect
heat signatures through a visual spectrum, much like that of infrared
vision.
"Drake," Rogue started abruptly in a patronizing tone, and she shined
the flashlight in her hand at his face as if to get her attention. It
worked, and he looked towards her with a raised brow. "We're rummagin'
through sewerage here, sugah."
"Err... well... yeah," Bobby Drake sort of shrugged and turned his attention
back to the near endless corridor ways ahead of them. "The sewage part
sucks. But I meant that Prosh was monitoring the situation at the time."
"Weren't ya the one who was afraid of gettin' infertile from all this
teleportin'?" Rosemarie Charleston retorted as she swayed the flashlight
in hand into various corners of the tunnel.
"Eh, whaddya gonna do, huh?" Bobby asked rhetorically, and through his
infrared vision, incidentally caught an unsettling sight of two rats mating
not far off down the tunnel. He shook his head, and continued, "Not like
I'm ever gonna be a daddy anyway."
"Agreed," Rogue nodded and said in a mock-stern voice, trying to breach
his hull of self-pity with her own critical sense of sarcasm. "A woman
would hafta be legally insane to go through somethin' like that with the
likes of you."
"Point taken," Bobby said with a groan, and he scratched the back of his
head as they walked. Since when did he become such a pity-seeker?
"Shame, though," Rogue continued to say meekly, though she paused a moment
as her eyes continued to wonder over the sewage drains running along the
tunnel walls. She looked back to Bobby and smiled warmly, "You'd make
a great daddy someday, popsicle."
"Was that a proposal?" Bobby asked, in an upbeat and playful tone.
"Oh yeah," Rogue stifled a laugh and ended up coughing. She rolled her
eyes, and though flattered, kept up her front of sarcasm. "You wish, Bobb-o..."
"Naahhh. Not really," Bobby interjected suavely, sounding almost proud
in what he was about to say. "I think I'm gonna just cut it off with the
women scene, and... and maybe return Northstar's call..."
"Oh mah Lord," Rogue blurted out, caught totally off guard by what he
had said. "All those X-Men an' mutant imitation love sites out there,
with those rumor mills..."
"Didn't think any of them held true to life, eh?" Bobby hunched his brows
and made kissy faces at Rogue, then winked. Rogue shoved him, and even
though without her superior strength, he toppled off-balance slightly
with laughter.
The two continued trudging through the tunnel's sewage, both sharing their
moment of quiet laughter. But as the realization of what they were doing
had hit, Bobby suddenly frowned and sighed. They were wasting time.
"Oy," he groaned and looked to her, his tone downshifting from cocky to
serious. "Hate to be moody guy here, but we really need to focus on the
task at hand here."
"You're right," Rogue agreed, and put her flashlight between her armpit
and ribs so that she could adjust her headset with both hands. "Omega's
still backed up, but my uplink with Cerebro says that Marrow and Sherry
are still down here in th' tunnels..."
"There's no telling what Marrow could be doing to her right now, or why
she even brought her here..." Iceman trailed off, trying to weigh the
possibilities.
"Too bad these tunnel walls are so dense," Rogue muttered and raised her
gloved hand to the wall, tracing the outline of bricks with her finger.
A trace of some kind of brown substance appeared on her finger tip, and
she brought it up to the light to examine awkwardly. She shook her head
and said, "Otherwise, we may be able t' get a solid lead on their loca
-- "
"Shhh!" Bobby shushed abruptly, interrupting what she was going to say.
She went quiet, though a bit annoyed. "Hold up," he said as his hand raised
as if to signal her attention. He tilted his head to the side and squinted
his eyes, trying to get earshot of what he may or may not have her heard
just in that brief second. "Did you hear that?"
"Ah did," Rogue said in a whisper and nodded. The sounds of hollow foot
steps and distant whispers were not too far off, but were hard to pinpoint
exactly. Together, they continued down the tunnel, and could hear the
sounds grow louder.
"I think I know why the smart heroes are always the strong and silent
type," Bobby commented in a low, sarcastic tone. Rogue hunched her brows
his way in agreement, and in those few moments, they had arrived at a
crossroads in the tunnels.
Rogue considered how if her catalogue of powers was still accessible,
she could easily use Wolverine's advanced senses to pick up the faint
sounds, or at the least, Marrow and Sherry's scents.
It was a moot point now though, and after a few seconds of listening carefully,
both Rogue and Iceman knew which direction was best.
"This way," Bobby nodded his head towards the corridor to their right.
Rogue nodded, and they both slowly made their way down it, sure to tip
toe through the sewage as to not make too much noise by sloshing any of
it around.
After only a few yards, the end of the tunnel they selected seem to come
too quickly, however. Rogue caught sight of the brick wall from afar,
and summoned her flashlight onto it. She knew what this meant.
The sounds and voices had grown closer in their venture, but this was
one obstacle that may be a little too hard to get around without even
just her Ms. Marvel powers.
"Dead end," Rogue said as she came to a stop, and put a gloved hand on
her hip. Iceman walked past her, a crease forming over his brow as he
examined it. Through his infrared vision, he could see that the brick
wall was letting off an oddly bright heat signature.
"I don't think so..." Bobby said with a grin as he slid his open-palmed
hand up to the wall, and pressed against it. To Rogue's surprise, his
hand didn't really press against the barrier at all.
Instead, his hand had gone through it.
"Hologram," Bobby stated, looking over his shoulder to his partner on
this mission. Rogue turned off her flashlight, and bit down on her bottom
lip.
"An' bingo was her name-o."
There was a splash of raw sewage as Sherry Redfield's small body went
down hard, and she couldn't help but whimper as that vile smell of the
Morlock Tunnels sunk even deeper into her clothes and hair. Ahead of her
there was a squeak that seemed to mimic her whimpers, followed by tiny,
vacating splashes of that same sewage Sherry was in.
When she sat up, she shook and heaved from the wet cold. She looked down
and tried to see through the darkness at her hands, but it was nearly
impossible to see through the filth that covered her. and the darkness
that accompanied the tunnels. She was sure her knees and hands had been
skinned from the fall, though.
Sherry wanted to cry, but as much as she tried to, she was already emotionally
exhausted from the days' events.
Unnoticeable by the tunnels' only other occupant, her eyes were dry and
bloodshot, and it was almost as if the tears wouldn't come anymore. In
her mind, she knew the feeling just wasn't there anymore.
She was helpless, and she was almost completely about to accept that fact.
Almost.
"I think dinner's gettin' away, sweetie..." that cryptic voice came from
the shadows once again. It was like each time the voice came, Sherry couldn't
tell where it was coming from. But she had quickly learned to despise
its presence.
"Fuck you!" the young girl cursed like she had heard so many other adults
do so. She flailed her hands in the murky waters beneath her and stood
up quickly.
A deafening silence would ensue, but Sherry tried her best to not let
it stall her efforts in retaliation. Her eyes trailed the tunnel walls
and the shadows, trying to locate the owner of that haunting voice.
"Even if I caught the stupid thing, I would never eat a rat!" Sherry
cried out in disgust, hoping to antagonize as the rebellion built.
"How demented are you?!"
Suddenly, Sherry tensed up and the dark tunnels all flashed by her in
a blur. Marrow had come upon her from the shadows, ceasing her at the
neck and forcing her face straight down towards the murky sewage.
Somewhere between it all, Sherry's eyelids had clamped down tightly over
her eyes. Marrow made it a point to twist the girl's hair tightly, nearly
pulling it from her scalp, and Sherry's eyes snapped open from the searing
pain.
Inches away from her face, there was a rat impaled by one of Marrow's
wretched bone daggers. The rat's mangled guts and blood drenched its twisted
and convulsing hide, and Sherry could have swore it's beady eyes were
staring right up at her.
Frightened and helpless. Something they both had in common.
A moist, hot breath came upon Sherry's ear as Marrow eased mouth down
to the girl. Her deranged voice came upon her subtly, yet crippling.
"When I was about your age, and lived down here with all my little mutant
family and friends..." Marrow began slowly and gently, before
her face tightened and bunched up in rage, and she twisted the girl's
hair back tightly. "We were lucky to get to eat somethin'
like this!"
Sherry let out a wounded cry as Marrow drove her face back down towards
the now dead rat. Some of her hair had came loose in Marrow's hand, but
it was no matter to either of them at the moment.
"You won't be this pretty for long, being a disgusting mutant and all.
Beggars can't be Choosers for long..." Marrow said adoringly, but through
gritted teeth. "So be a good girl, and enjoy. What Mommy. Has got you.
Fer dinner."
Marrow flashed a twisted, patronizing grin.
"You're not my mother," Sherry grumbled in heaves, and it felt like the
ability to cry was coming back. More over, it was replacing her dying
urge to rebel and resist against the insane woman's antics.
"You don't see the resemblance?" Marrow uttered sarcastically and bit
down on her bottom lip, before she abruptly jerked the bone dagger from
the dead rat and tossed it aside, and then forced Sherry's face against
its blood smeared, bacteria infested body.
"I said EAT IT!" she screamed exhaustingly. Sherry was soon back
in sobbing tears, and she could feel her upper lip twitching, and parting
from her lower lip into the opening of her mouth. She was about to hesitantly
comply... until it came.
The voice of her salvation.
"Loud enough for us, bonernose?" it had boomed throughout the tunnels.
Marrow's head snapped in the familiar voice's direction, and sure enough
there he was.
"Bobby!" Sherry cried out as she reared her mouth away from the rat. She
wanted to turn her eyes to see him, but Marrow was still holding her face
against the dead rat, as well as holding her body firm and in captive.
"Face it, babe," Iceman started as he and Rogue fully walked out from
the shadows, cautious of Marrow's actions, yet ready to lay down whatever
force was needed. "The jig... is up... Let Sherry go."
Marrow's breathing suddenly picked up as she too prepared for the coming
fight. To his demands however, her voice merely replied, "Make me."
Her hand quickly shot down to the teleporting device strapped at her waist,
but before she could activate it, a jagged slither of ice shot through
the air at blinding speeds and ripped through it.
Marrow cried out as the slither penetrated her side as well as destroyed
her first means of escape, but it had all but handicapped her. She ripped
the slither from her side and lunged forward, taking Sherry up under her
arm and starting off into a bolt down the corridors of the Morlock Tunnels.
"LET ME GO!!" Sherry had screeched as that small bit of defiance that
had been left formed into a wild rage as hope had finally arrived. She
kicked and flung her arms about, but Marrow's grip on her wouldn't loosen.
"C'mon!" Bobby snapped as him and Rogue took off after the two in hot
pursuit. His fists suddenly started to glow a brilliant shade of icy blue,
and in a fraction of a second, the tunnels' walls were being coated in
a thick layer of ice.
The same ice had sparked with a sort of life as Iceman and Rogue chased
after Marrow and Sherry in fierce pumps of their legs and arms. At first,
the ice coating the walls had crept along the outer edges of the tunnels,
moving slowly but surely. But then it had suddenly shot past the pursuing
Iceman and Rogue, and it was moving after Marrow with such tremendous
speed.
Bobby knew there was no room for his ice sled, and that they both may
not be able to catch up with Marrow's pace, but that hadn't meant his
options were limited.
Marrow caught a glimpse of the ice as it followed her from the walls on
both sides of her and Sherry, coating every inch and picking up more and
more speed. Suddenly the ice made its way further up and was ahead of
them, and with a mental command from Iceman himself, the ice had lunged
out before the fleeing Marrow.
It was creating a wall, albeit much slower then it had pursued, and that
would be where the plan would ultimately fall short.
The instincts of the longtime mutant terrorist and once X-Man had taken
over, and just before the barricade of ice could completely seal them
off from the other side of the tunnel, Marrow leapt in the air with Sherry
in tow through the middle gap and was tumbling on the concrete ground
on the other side just as it closed.
"Damnit!" Bobby had cursed from afar back, and his partner in this mission,
Rogue, hadn't much to say beyond the same measure. On the other side of
the ice barricade, Marrow was continuing to escape, getting much further
ahead to her destination...
As Iceman and Rogue caught up to the barricade, Bobby ripped his hands
away from his body and the walls of ice he had formed parted from each
other sharply. The ice had seemingly shattered upon his command, and in
the distance, Iceman and Rogue could see Marrow hauling Sherry away just
in the distance.
"We can still catch up," Rogue heaved, and Bobby nodded to her. He swallowed
hard, taking in a solid gasp of air, and then they pressed on.
"We're here!" Marrow chirped as she came around a corridor's corner with
Sherry under her arm. She snickered to herself in relief, and continued
under the threshold of what appeared to be a devastingly different tunnel
then the ones they had been in.
Through all the horror and desperation to be reached by Bobby, Sherry
was suddenly bedazzled by the tunnel. Along it's vast walls were what
looked like computers. Monitors and constructs of metal, tied together
by multicolored wires and tubes.
Inside the tunnel, there were chairs and consoles, tables and instruments
made of technology only seen in sci-fi movies. Though the lights in the
tunnel were dim, they were much brighter and florescent then the few outside
of it.
Most noticeably, there were four large tubes with dark, green fluids running
in them and bulky shapes centered within them, placed just before the
entrance into the tunnel. Two of the constructs were on each wall, and
at the far end of the room, there was one more, placed at the head of
the room.
Its light and the fluids flowing about within in it were dimmer then the
others. It was inactive, as far as the naked eye could see.
Marrow dropped Sherry from under her arm to the concrete floor of the
tunnel. It was solid and relatively sterile. Unlike the ones outside,
no sewage or liquids was there. Holding onto the young girl's hand, Marrow
made her way deeper into the bowels of the tunnel and tossed the broken
teleportation device from her side onto a lab table.
She turned around and waited. It would only be a matter of time before
her persuers had caught up, and she was right in believing so.
"Go ahead," Marrow urged Sherry, wrangling her by her arm. Sherry looked
up to her, uncertain, in which Marrow responded with, "Call for 'em."
Pausing for a moment, Sherry considered what Marrow had planned. Was she
simply taunting her? Or did she have something planned for Bobby and the
other X-Man he was with? Should she make the gamble and just do it?
When Marrow pulled a bonedagger from her back with a sickening crunch
and held it up to Sherry's neck, the decision was almost immediately made
for her.
"BOBBY!!!" Sherry screamed at the top of her lungs. Sure enough, they
had both heard her call and were in the corridor within moments. Before
doing saying or doing anything else, Iceman and Rogue had froze in their
tracks, their eyes grew wide in surprise.
"Whoa," Rogue muttered as she looked around, then glared towards Bobby.
"Are we where I think we are?" Bobby asked, returning to her the same
look. Rogue didn't have a response to give, and the question wasn't neccesarily
that important... or so they thought.
They both shot their focus onto Marrow and Sherry after their initial
moment of surprise. Marrow had stopped running, and was now standing there
with Sherry at her side, a warped grin painted from ear to ear as she
simply stared at them.
"Gotcha," Marrow hunched her brows maliciously at the two, drawing back
and then flinging the bonedagger in hand at Rogue's head.
Moving agilely, the skunkhead ducked down and to the side, allowing the
dagger to go sailing over her. It seemed like a bad aim at the moment,
but when her emerald eyes trailed up to those of Iceman's, she realized
she had been mistaken.
Sticking out of the console behind them, and sparking with aggravated
bits of electricity, was the bonedagger Marrow had thrown. With a quiet
groan, the containment tubes on both sides of the two released their fluids
and slid open.
"What th' -- ?!" Rogue started to say, but cut herself off in horror as
four disfigured and ill-colored, oversized and mutated, Morlocks vacated
the tubes and were seemingly drawn to Iceman and Rogue.
"Even after death, ol' McCoy still manages to be a threat, eh?" Marrow
laughed sickeningly. Sherry struggled to break from the woman's grasp,
but Marrow pulled her back and held it firmly in place.
"No, no, no!!" Sherry had gasped and cried as the four Morlocks converged
on Bobby and Rogue. It had a been trap like she had thought.
"A little over elaborate of a trap for just one little girl, don'tcha
think, Marrow?!" Iceman quipped as one of the Morlocks came upon him quick,
and he blasted the deformity back with a powerful beam of ice.
Bobby went to turn towards the next Morlock who was attacking, but it
had been too late. The lumbering creature wrapped him in a bear hug from
behind, and the more Bobby struggled, the tighter the Morlock's grip got.
Before him, the Morlock he had blasted was already recovering, it's pupil-less
eyes fixated on him the entire time.
"Rogue!" Iceman called out with a gasp as he felt his breath suddenly
slip out of him. He strained and turned his head to his partner, but the
other two Morlocks were holding her down. He could still see her even
with them over her, but she too was already incapacitated.
"Mind... ungh.... givin' me a hand... sugah?" Rogue uttered from underneath
the mass of one of them as she managed to pull off her glove. She could
have absorbed their powers if she wanted to, but with the state they were
in, she didn't know what it would do to her.
Bobby would be her only choice, and she reached out to him with a groan,
but then suddenly a jagged pain errupted down her shoulder and she let
out a sharp battle cry. "AGHH!!"
One of the Morlocks had suddenly bit down on her, and she closed her eyes
down tight as she felt a bit of her flesh and muscle rip away from her
shoulder. Another shrilling burst of laughing came from Marrow as she
watched from a distance.
"See, babe?" Marrow said through gritted teeth as she jerked and weaved
Sherry side to side, the little girl barely being able to watch on in
disgust. "Us Morlocks learn to appreciate whatever we can get our hands
on to eat."
Bobby's eyes widdened in horror as he watched the creature start to chew
on the flesh he had ripped from Rogue, and then the second Morlock on
her went to bite her arm. Bobby strained and fought harder against the
strength of the Morlock holding him, and with a little bit of luck he
was able to get one of his arms loose.
"Rogue!" he called out to her again, and he flung his hand back to grab
ahold of his holder's face. With a flash, a sheet of ice covered the monstrosity's
face, and he recoiled back in pain, letting Iceman fall down to the ground
on his back.
"Aww shit..." he muttered as he reached down to his back, but his eyes
quickly shifted to Rogue as she bit down on her lip hard and pushed back
the near overwhelming pain. She couldn't break free from her attackers.
Not yet, anyway.
"I'm out!" Bobby yelled to her as he moved up to his feet, and Rogue's
arm shot up past one of the Morlock's head.Bobby reached out to grab ahold
of her so she could absorb some of his powers to use, but the first Morlock
that had attacked him was up again, and lifted Iceman up off his feet.
Bobby was already moving frantically through his attacker's grip, and
when he got high enough, he clapsed his hand over the Morlock's face,
and another explosion of ice from his palm sent the creature reeling back
into the ground.
Iceman dropped to his feet and slapped his hand out to Rogue's bare hand,
taking firm grip. As it happened, Rogue gasped and her eyes shot open
once more. The second the two's skin touched, Rogue's body started transforming
into the organic ice state Bobby was known for.
First her fingers, then her hand and forearm, and then down across her
body. The pain from her wounds ceased, and the missing tissue was replaced
by that organic ice that she was now temporarily made of.
"Ya'll can get... off... now!" Rogue squirmed, and ice exploded from her
body and sent the two Morlocks flying off of her and into the tunnel walls.
Iceman himself was thrown back down onto his bottom, but no more worse
for wear. When he looked up to Rogue and her chisled, frame made up of
ice, he huffed an exhausted breath and smiled to her, "Nice one."
"Couldn't of done it without ya," Rogue retorted in a low tone, and her
hand immediately went to the wound that had been on her shoulder. It was
gone now.
"Sherry?" Bobby called out suddenly as his eyes went wide in realization.
He turned around to where Marrow and her were, and he shuffled up to his
feet. But they were both gone, and Bobby slammed his fists into the ground.
"Damnit!"
If matters hadn't been worse, all of the Morlocks were already recovering.
They had moved up to their feet and started to surround the two.
"Ah can handle 'em, Bobby," Rogue said as if reading his mind. Iceman
hesitated as he saw them lumber towards them, but Rogue nodded and that
was enough face value for Bobby. He took off into a run across the makeshift
labratory to the other end, where it had lead out to another corridor
as Rogue took a fighting stance, her fists glowing with an aura of freezing
moisture.
"Don't. RUN. From. ME!" Marrow's voice echoed deep through the
bowels of the Morlock Tunnels. During the fight, Sherry had broken away
from her grasp and managed to take off running. When Marrow found that
girl, she would make her sorry.
"And what are you gonna do if she does?" Iceman said cynically, appearing
at the end of the tunnel just behind her. Marrow turned around sharply,
and ripped two bonedaggers out from her lower back.
"She's mine, and I'm keepin' her, Drake," Marrow was quick to say. She
twirled the two bonedaggers in hand and gripped them tightly. They were
the last two she had until new ones grew back, which would have to be
in a few days.
"What's your obsession with this girl?" Bobby snapped as he slowly started
to approach his new opponent, his fists clenched and ready.
Marrow's grew narrow with the sound of his words, and he knew he had hit
a sore spot by calling her on the obsession. For a moment, it was as if
her mind had started to fade away from the situation at hand. Fade away
back to those distant memories...
"-- We're down here to have fun with you misfits before we kill the
whole lot of you..." Victor Creed's voice taunted her in a raspy whisper
as he ravaged her young body that fateful day."...and fun it is we'll
have."
"No! Please... unnhh... don't...!" she had cried over and over again.
"...don't...!"
His toothy grin and yellow mane would replacing the faces of many of those
she killed in battle. Unknowing and uncaring to what one day she would
become, he would only leave her in shambles of what she was, having contributed
to taking her soul away...
"They took her away from me!" Marrow screamed worse then bloody murder.
She lunged at Iceman and slashed both of her daggers down at his body,
but Bobby had been out of the way of her attack in an instant, dodging
to her side.
She quickly came about face and slashed at his throat, but Bobby had pulled
back out of reach, and then quickly closed the space between them with
an uppercut to her chin. Before she could retaliate, he followed up with
a left hook that sent her to the ground.
"Took who, Sarah?" He asked as Marrow hit the seweage covered corridor
with a hard splash. She moved up to her hands and knees, still holding
the bonedaggers between her palms and the ground.
"Sherry, you fuckin' twit," she spat. She heaved and then took a hard
breath, and looked back up to him. He could see even in the dim light
that her eyes were bloodshot. "Said she was pretty and looked normal,
and that she could have a normal life..."
"But you didn't want that..." Iceman harshly finished her sentence. He
found himself in disgust at the twisted obsession Marrow had formed since
childhood.
"All the while I sat in a corner quietly, doin' nothin' while they took
her to leave at some unsuspecting upworlder's doorstep..." Marrow continued,
heaving. "But now I have the power to get her back, and to give her the
life she should have had!"
Marrow's foot shot out and slammed into Bobby's kneecap, sending him down
to a kneel. She got up from her hands and drove a bonedagger down into
his back, just barely missing one of his lungs.
Iceman wanted to cry out, but bit down the pain he knew she was looking
for. Marrow twisted the dagger in his back, and then drop kicked him in
the face. She pulled out the dagger and let him fall back onto his side
into the sewage.
"Down here..." Marrow said meekly as she stood over Bobby's fallen form,
both daggers still in hand. She lifted her foot out of the sewage and
pressed her boot down onto his neck, preparing to crush his windpipe.
"With me."
"Only one prob. with that plan..." Iceman muttered from underneath her
booth as his hands started to grip her ankle. Marrow gave him a cockeyed
glare, and then suddenly his own boot came up from underneath and slammed
into her pelvic bone.
Marrow winced and doubled back off of her opponent, the attack and it's
nature having been totally unexpected. Just before she could retaliate
though, Bobby threw up both of his hands towards her and blasted her over
thirty feet backwards with a beam of ice.
"She's going back to her real mom," Bobby said, swallowing hard just before
she hit the sewage covered ground with a sickening crunch.
A shimmer of freezing moisture went down his body, and he transformed
into his organic ice state as he started up with a groan. No major organs
or even his spine had been pierced by her attack, but it still hurt like
hell.
Going into this mission, he hadn't wanted to hurt Marrow. He tried his
hardest to keep to just physical attacks, but now that was done. As he
approached her, he clenched his fists again, but this time they errupted
into a glowing aura of blue moisture.
Slowly, as he came upon her, he noticed something was wrong with her.
She was starting to convulse, and on closer observation, he saw that she
had fallen on her bonedaggers. They were both tearing at opposite angles
through her chest.
"Oh, crap..." Bobby uttered as he knelt down to her, looking over her
wounds. The sewage was already becoming tainted with her blood. "Marrow..."
Marrow looked up through half-closed eyes at Bobby, tired. Her breathing
was starting to become jagged and hoarse, and it was starting to go dark.
Bobby hesitated, but then reached his hand down to hers, taking it in
his hand.
It was the only thing she could feel, and she was suddenly scared. Scared
so much like the times she had been when she was younger. Scared like
the time he came to her...
"Shhh, petite.... Shhh..." his voice had ushered her once again,
like in all her past memories. At first she flinched and hesitated, but
when she glanced up, she saw two glowing red pupils stand out from the
new void surrounding her.
"Ev'thing's gonna be okay now," the warm and soothing voice continued
as the man stroked her ragged hair. "No one's goin' to hurt you now,
Sarah. It's over."
Never again did she want to experience what she had... Never again.
For a moment though, the heaving and shaking that had overcome her ceased.
She would never understand why she did it, but Sarah sat herself up and
lunged herself into him, and he wrapped his arms around her in kind, cradling
her against his body.
"I know dis don't mean nothin' to you now, girl...." Remy LeBeau
had told her, in-between quiet sobs himself. "But someday I want you
to understand... I'm sorry."
She cried, and she cried, and she embraced the warmth he offered her for
one last time. The man she would later come to hate so much was the man
who would take away all the pain and sorrow life forced her to shoulder.
The glowing red pupils would disappear, and the darkness would ensue once
and for all.
Sarah was gone.
"Bobby!" Sherry's voice called out, followed by the sounds of her little
feet splashing through the sewage in the corridor. Bobby released Marrow's
hand, and moved his hand up to her eyes, closing them for her. He then
turned away from her lifeless body and began walking towards Sherry, not
wanting her to get to close.
"If you had a dollar for every time you've said my name today..." he said
to her with a gentle smile, and he kneeled down to hug her close to him.
With a soft sigh, he said, "Err... well, you'd be able to buy a comic
book and a slurpee at the least..."
"I was hiding just up the tunnel, watching the entire time..." Sherry
started to say as she hugged him tightly, but couldn't help but look over
his shoulder at Marrow's fallen form. "Is she...?" Bobby nodded to her
slowly.
"Yeah. You're safe now, Sherry," he almost choked. Slowly he started to
stroke her hair, and he breathed. "She was disturbed and nothing she said
was true. But it's over now, and I'm taking you home to your mom now.
Your real mom."
"Good," Sherry sobbed, but she hadn't let go. She could only hug him and
let him hold her as the tears came upon her again.
Later...
"Take a look at this guy up here..." he had heard amongst the hustle and
bustle of the small, New Jersey hospital. "Mr. Hero."
Bobby turned around from the doorway he was standing near, and saw a handful
of the X-Men Omega team coming his way from down the hospital's hallway.
He smiled to himself and took his hands out of his pockets.
"Guess you're takin' off now, huh War?" Bobby asked as the trio approached
him, and he made eye contact with Warren, who was standing in the lead.
"Business calls, as usual. You know how it is," Warren said smuggly and
made a gesture with his hands as if to apologize. "Too bad we didn't get
to catch up."
"I'll be sure to make an appointment with your secretary," Bobby retorted
and shook his long time friend's hand. Warren knew a simple handshake
wouldn't do though, and pulled Bobby in for a rib-shattering hug.
"Ow!" he coughed with a mix of laughter thrown in as Warren released him.
He straightened out his shirt, and smiled. "Take care, buddy. I will
be seein' ya again sometime soon."
"There's always the next mutant terrorist attack on humanity, am I right?"
Betsy suddenly chimed in as she stepped up from behind Warren. Bobby snickered,
and nodded to her in agreement.
"I'll see ya later, too, Betts," Bobby said as they both hugged, albeit
less aggressively then then when with Warren. "Did I mention that I love
the hair?"
"Oh, Bobby..." Betsy replied in mock flattery, and she titled her head
to the side as they released their embrace. She gave him a sly look before
saying, "I bet you say that to all the gals... or at least just Dazzler."
"Err.. uhh...." Bobby stammered, and Betsy winked at him before walking
off with Warren. John was the next one to step up, giving Bobby a sort
of arrogant glare. Bobby could only smirk, and extend his hand out to
the man. "Have a good one, John."
John didn't say anything in response, but simply shook Bobby's hand firmly.
He was eying Bobby one last time before he retracted his hand, and steadied
it in his jacket pocket with the other. He then slowly made his way after
Warren and Betsy.
Bobby took a look around the hallway, but didn't see any of the other
Omega faction around. Sighing calmly, he turned back to the doorway he
was in.
Unnoticed, he watched as Tanya Redfield erupted into tears, and held Sherry
in her arms. They were both reunited, and though he knew Tanya would have
some demons to face afterwards, that they would both be okay. They had
to be, right?
There was a tap at Bobby's shoulder, and before he even turned around,
he knew who was there.
"Aren't you gonna go in t' say hi?" Rogue asked in more of a suggestive
tone then an inquisitive one. Bobby looked her way, hunching his brows
at her with a smile. He knew she wouldn't of left without saying anything.
"And ruin a Kodak moment like that between true mother and daughter?"
He asked rhetorically, bearing that same smile for a moment longer before
he shook his head to answer. "Nah, not even if they aren't really biological..."
"Definitely one for the books, either way," Rogue was quick to comment,
almost as if she was trying to keep the steam rolling in their conversation.
He knew she was trying to get something out of him, but he would rather
stay closed off at the moment.
"Yeah..." Bobby sighed a moment, then wrinkled his nose with a bit of
a smirk. "Hey, so how's things going with you and Mags Junior?" He asked
as he turned away from the sight of Tanya and Sherry's embrace and looked
into Rogue's emerald green eyes, a hint of sincerity behind his tired
and listless blues.
Rogue stared at him for a moment before she decided to correct him in
that stern, southern accent. "Pietro," she said as he placed her hands
on her hips and hid back a provoked grin as she explained to him, "His
name is Pietro, Bobby. Not Mags Junior."
"Yeah. Pietro Maximoff, right?" Bobby nodded to her surely, pretending
like his cynical judgment of the guy was nonexistent. "Son of iron fist
dictator of Genosha? Can do the things an average man can do but only
in about five seconds or less?"
A diabolical grin flared to life across Bobby's mug at the sound of that
last line, and Rogue bit her lip with a piercing glare at the attack on
her lover's manhood. "That's the guy," Bobby continued after a beat of
silence, nodding to her firmly. "Mags Junior."
"You know you're cruisin' for a bruisin', right Drake?" Rogue said dangerously
as she poked him firmly in the shoulder with a gloved finger. Bobby leaned
back into the doorway of the hospital room and he smiled halfhe artedly.
"Right. Sorry," he started to say as he suddenly seemed to grow distant.
"You know me, though... Just compensating for the utter feeling of discontent
and harsh reality regarding everything that's been going on lately."
"We got t' her before anything happened, Bobby," Rogue said as she slid
a hand across his shoulder in her attempt to comfort him. "An' even though
a lot of people were hurt at the boardwalk, no one was killed. All's well
that ends well."
"Motto of the X-Men," Bobby retorted uneasily with a snort as looked back
up to Rogue and gave her a faint smile. "Take whatever victory you can
get, right?"
"You know it," Rogue confirmed as she matched his faint smile with her
own. "Sometimes it's all we got goin' for us. You should know that by
now."
"I do. Heh... for the love of God, I do..." Bobby said as he crossed his
arms and closed his eyes with a sigh. "It just seems like I've been visiting
hospitals a lot lately..." he said as he crossed his arms and opened his
eyes, and turned to look into Tanya's room. "And I still have one more
to go, too..."
Epilogue.
Brooklyn General Hospital.
As Cecilia Reyes walked out from the hospital's Board of Director's room,
she let out a tired sigh and leaned into a nearby wall. Slowly she reached
up and began rubbing away the tension she was feeling at her temples with
her fingers, her eyes fixed on the tile hospital floor. She closed them
for a moment, and then opened them.
The young Puerto Rican woman was in her mid to late twenties, but there
was something in her eyes that told all those who encountered her that
she had long skipped her youth. Skipped it in hopes for something more...
When she dropped her arms back down to her sides and looked up, she was
startled. He was sitting there, directly across from her on one
of the hallway's benches, and he had grinned crookedly and waved at her
slightly.
"How'd it go in there?" Bobby asked as she started to approach him. She
eyed him through her rimmed glasses, and took another breath.
"It went fine, Bobby," Cecilia said contentedly. She plopped herself down
next to him, and paused before continuing, "They even went as far to say
that I was an 'invaluable asset to the hospital and it's patients.' Probably
just their way of covering their asses after that mutant registration
act backfired."
"Yeah, probably," Bobby nodded in agreement. Suddenly, he snapped his
fingers and snickered wildly. "Damn, though. There goes all my careful
sabotaging of your doctoring career, I guess. Just right out the
window."
"Shut up," was all Cecilia could muster out in retaliation.
"No, really. I was hoping this Saturday night would be free, but it looks
like I'm going to have to spend it doing some more rigid scheming to ruin
your life..." Bobby continued as he rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Of
course... not like I have anything better to do."
"No, really," Cecilia mimicked his words. "I think you need to shut
up, Drake," she shook her head and rubbed her temples. "I was just
upset when I called you that morning, that's all. Last time I ran into
you and your friends, things didn't exactly go well, and what can
I say? History repeats itself when you're a mutant."
"Heh..." Bobby looked away from Cecilia at the tiled, hospital floor.
"And..." Cecilia cleared her throat, oblivious to the man's odd behavior.
"I saw the news report on what happen with your friends..." she continued,
glancing down to the floor.
Bobby turned his attention back to her, and she looked up into his eyes
as she swallowed back the lump in her throat. She concluded her sentiment
with quite simply, "I'm sorry."
An awkward silence fell between the two, and Bobby wasn't sure what to
say. He could tell she was sincere in her condolences, but the thoughts
and feelings he had behind Grizzly and Gibbon's deaths were still going
to haunt him.
"...Think nothing of it," Bobby finally said with a heavy breath. He looked
back to Cecilia, smiling at her tiredly as he too swallowed hard. He thjen
stood up and started to walk away. "Keep your nose clean, doc," he called
back to her, but didn't turn around to face.
She watched as he walked away down the hallway, disappearing on that mark
as if he had found out all that he needed to know. Or maybe she had been
pressing on a sore spot, and he was fleeing before it could get any sorer.
He had quite possibly been scarred by the recent events in his life, after
all.
There aren't many things in the world that could heal those kind of scars,
and Cecilia Reyes knows this. Bobby Drake knows this, too. But more importantly
he knew that as time went by, those scars would craft him into who he'll
be remembered as, and who he was shaping out to be for the rest of his
life.
He could only hope that wasn't a bad thing...
