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Hibernation; [closed]
Topic Started: Feb 5 2008, 12:53 AM (128 Views)
Volt
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Electrokinesis / Cloned Origin
It had been a month since he had gone into hiding in the waterfall cave, and his existence had not been discovered. Mojo understood what the flaws in his earlier creations had been and so had ordered his geneticist Arize to make improvements. The doctor had complied, not that he had any choice, and he had made 73826 more capable of withstanding everything that would be thrown at him, including telepathic detection. So he had slipped beneath the radars of those at the school who might be searching for him and for a long cold month, he dwelt in the cave, his unique construction allowing him to slide in and out of an almost hibernative state in order to survive.

He was not often awake during that month, but when he was, he stalked the school like a malicious shadow, using the cover of night and storm to know precisely where the security systems were. He'd spied on staff and student, knew some of them by name and personality now, knew who his biggest threats were, knew who he could kill without breaking a sweat. He'd learned that there was a wedding coming up, and that would take two of the heavier hitters out of the equation-- a telepath and an energy wielder... Jean and Scott memories that weren't his supplied, and he couldn't quite say what the emotions were that filled him when he thought of those two... When he delved too deeply, he felt the need to return to the cave, and curl into a catatonic ball, spinning the ring on his finger until he was able to set his mind back to its task.

He hadn't seen the woman who he'd seen before... not since she'd driven him away with her recognition. He knew, without remembering how, where her room was and he never faced that window, never climbed up to peer inside and watch her and her child sleep... no matter how much he wanted to.


During those nights, 26 was alone, but at the same time he wasn't. Jonathan was always with him, reminding him of memories he didn't know he had, bringing up emotions he shouldn't be able to feel.


26 lay on the cold floor of the cave, curled up into a ball to conserve warmth, but Jonathan didn't feel the cold as he idly paced along the outside edge. It was mid-February and the waterfall was still frozen over, but a few drips of water hinted at the upcoming thaw.


"You just had to pick a cave," he drawled with a roll of his eyes. "A cave in the middle of winter, no less. This is what I call a 'flawed plan'."


"Go away," 26 muttered, "This is what was ordered, this is what will be. You aren't welcome here." He pulled himself into a sitting position, cracking open a vial of 'Liquid heat' to give a small bit of warmth and light, watching the hallucination of the man he'd been cloned from pace. "I can survive this. No one expects it. It makes it a 'perfect plan'."


"Neither are you, yet here you are, skulking around in the dark," Jonathan shot back pointedly as he ceased his pacing to crouch across from 26. "Oh yeah, perfect plan. After you turn into a meat popsicle, what then?"


26 held up one hand, allowing electricity to crackle from fingertip to fingertip, warningly, "Mojo's commanded I stay, and so I stay. I am better than you, I can survive the weather, survive the cold. I am more than you, phantom." He banished the electricity and looked away, "And, when the time is right to strike, I'll complete my mission and be rewarded."


A smirk quirked the corner's of Jonathan's lips. "Who are you trying to convince, brother? Me or you?" He paused, ignoring 26's little show of power and idly passing a hand through his brown hair. "I don't see how you call being Mojo's puppet 'surviving', anyway."


26 glared at Jonathan, "I don't have a choice but to be his puppet. It's what I am. I was created to do his work. You act as if I'm some sort of traitor. I'm a tool of death and nothing more. Would you blame a bullet for killing someone or the man who fired the gun?" He slumped miserably against the cold rock wall and put his hand over his eyes. "You don't even exist."


"You always have a choice...sometimes you just don't realize it. You were made as a weapon but that doesn't mean you have to be one." Jonathan mirrored 26's stance, passing a hand over his eyes as if he was tired. "I am more real than you are, than you will ever be if you keep denying who you are."


26 got to his feet, furious now, stomping around the cave in overblown activity, "You're DEAD! You're nothing but some side effect of my birth, memories and knowledge to be exploited! I don't have a choice, because I have no will! Don't you understand that?" He rapped on his head with a balled fist, more violently than simple indication, "Longshot had free will and he ran mad... They took it from me, bred it out of me... I... have to obey. I don't know any other way." The ring on his finger glinted in the green light of the liquid heat and he brought it to his lips, "I've been here too long, I've taken too long..."


Jonathan stood from his crouch as 26 began stomping around the cave, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes narrowed when 26 brought the ring up to his lips and Jonathan seized his wrist, pulling his hand down. "You do know. You just don't remember." A pause. "But you will. I'm going to show you."


"Don't touch me..." 26 whispered, too lost in his unhinged isolation to recognize that he was alone in this cave. He stared into the face of his double... no, not his double... his original... "I don't want to see... I don't know to know..."
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Volt
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Electrokinesis / Cloned Origin
There was a flash of white light and suddenly they were no longer in the cave, not even in the state of New York. They were in Richmond, Virginia, standing on the walkway in front of a two-story, red-brick house. It was the house Jonathan had grown up in with his parents, and while normally the memory would bring a smile to his face, Jonathan recognized this day and his expression remained closed.

An official-looking black car pulled up to the curb behind them and he stepped off the walk as two Army officers in their dress uniforms strode past them to the front door. "We were 15 here," Jonathan began to explain, his arms crossed over his chest, idly moving closer to the house as the officers rang the doorbell.

His voice was quiet when he spoke again. "I'll never forget this...our older brother, Eric, was in the war. When those two came to the door...I knew something was wrong. I just knew it."



26 watched with his eyes half narrowed, "Your brother, Eric, not mine. You and I share Dna, not parents. My childhood was quickly bypassed in a vat in the Mojoverse, tended to by Arize and my master. You're appealing to me with sentimentality I don't feel."

But he didn't look away.


Jonathan didn't respond to his words, taking two steps up onto the porch just as a woman, his mother, opened the door. The two men didn't have to say anything...Lucy knew instantly what was wrong and crumpled to the ground, sobbing as her husband came to stand behind her.

Jonathan's expression was tight, but he said nothing else as the two officers left a few moments later and the door to the house closed. He seemed to be waiting for something, and barely a minute later, he got it.

There was a boom, a pop, and the lights on the entire street went down. "We manifested our powers that day...took down the entire block."


26 took a step forward as the woman collapsed. "Is that your mother..." he asked, "It is. I can... Your memories hover in the back of my mind." He turned away and looked up at the darkened street lights, "My power is a hundred times stronger than this. I can take down a whole city."


"So could I," Jonathan said, and in the silence that accompanied the blackout, the sound of a woman crying could be heard from inside the house. "But remember, I was 15 when this happened. I didn't know what was happening to me, to us. Those first few weeks, after Eric died, I didn't know what to do with myself."

Another flash of light, and the scene changed again. They were back at the mansion, this time inside Xavier's office, and the Professor was explaining to a young Jonathan what being a mutant meant, the responsibilities they all had to use their powers for the greater good instead of succumbing to temptation.


26 looked away, his expression empty. "This man is a moron. Who is he to judge what is the greater good? I have murdered men who would pollute the blood of children with drugs. I have killed politicians who would extend war, or possibly end it for the wrong side. I have taken the lives of many men in my hands, and not one of them was what you might call an innocent. Yet, you would call me a monster for it. I come to this school to bring back the one who thinks himself to be Arthur Centino. He is a known serial killer, an exquisite weapon with no morality or mercy. He's harmless now because he's lost his direction. When he finds it, everyone in that school will be dead for his amusement. Why are you trying to stop me from completing my mission?"


Jonathan turned away from the scene playing out in front of them to face 26. "I don't deny that your mission is an important one...Longshot is a monster. But you deserve more than to just be a murderous errand boy. We deserve more."


"You lived your life, Jonathan," 26 said, for the first time addressing him by name, "You've lived it. This is my life now and this is my mission. I give in to you and try to relive your life and what waits for me? Your friends, your family? They would open their arms to me and accept me as you? I doubt that. Let me do my job then go back to my stasis to wait for the next mission."


Jonathan's expression darkened. "This is not a life, 26. This is an existence, nothing more. Don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise."

Another scene change, and they stood outside, the sun bright overhead and reflecting off the surface of the lake. Mina was there, a few years younger than she was now, smiling brightly and laughing as Meghan took wobbley steps towards her.

Jonathan slung an arm around 26's shoulders. "That is a life, brother," he said quietly, watching the scene fondly. "Aren't they beautiful?"


"Yes, they are," 26 admitted, "But it means nothing..." He looked away, "They are beautiful but they have nothing to do with me." He turned entirely way, his whole body, unable to face the memory, "Why are you taunting me with the perfection you had? Why can't you let me be what I am and leave it at that? I'm not real, Jonathan, I'm not a man. I'm a doll, a puppet... and I don't know how to be anything more."


26 turned away but Jonathan couldn't bring himself to do the same. "You're me, 26, as much as you don't want to admit it. Mojo may have created you, may have wiped your memories and molded you into nothing more than a mindless soldier, but beneath all of that...you are me."


"Genetics..." 26 said, lamely, "Just genetics." His hands trembled at his side, sparking with electricity, "We're as much a single person as a pair of twins."


"Twins don't share memories. You have mine, but you don't remember them all yet. Hard as he might have tried, Mojo can't wipe away who you are." He tore his gaze away from Mina and Meghan and looked to 26 seriously. "You know what I say is true."


"A flaw in my creation," 26 said, a quaver in his voice. He began to twist the ring, feeling the slight catch as the tiny needles inside it scraped the his flesh and activated the controls in his blood stream. His hands stopped trembling and his face grew less troubled. "I will be what I was built to be."


Jonathan's eyes dropped to the ring and he frowned as 26 twisted it around, knowing that he was losing this attempt. He said nothing, but in the blink of an eye they were back at the power shed on that cold, snowy night where this had all began.

It was dark, but they could still see Mina clearly as she stood against the wall, that shocked, frightened, and painfully hopeful expression on her face. 26 powers -- their powers -- arched towards her and slammed into the water she conjured. "Jonathan, stop it, please!" she pleaded.

"You know her," Jonathan said quietly. "You know you do."


26 closed his eyes and said, softly, "I'm going to marry that girl..." Then, he spun around and blasted out with his powers, streaking through the delusion of the man he had once been and crackling into the wall of ice that was the frozen water fall. The ice did not conduct electricity, but the slick of melt on the outside did, and the blue sparking lightning lit up the inside of the cave that had been his home for a month.

26 sank to his knees as the electricity faded, and he buried his face in his hands... alone... alone...

He had to get this done, bring back Longshot alive or dead... so he could get out of this place with its ghosts and unwanted memories.


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