psinex@yahoo.com Academia Book 1: Starting Block Chapter 12 by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: Everyone here is Marvel's, except for Soraya and the kid at the end, who are mine. No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. ------------------------------------------------------ 10/31/00: X-Mansion, Men's Wing: 19:00 hrs EST: ------------------------------------------------------ I am the end product of a demon's failure. Background: Thomas Shade, 13-year-old half-mutant, half-synthezoid hybrid. Male. Blue eyes. Reddish hair. Alpha-class entropokine. Entropkine: A parahuman being capable of generating and/or controlling entropic energy, and thus being able to hasten and/or direct the eventual collapse of the universe, at least according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Source of my powers: the demon Chthon's interference with my mother's mutant energy absorption/redirection talent at her birth. Her powers mutated in me to give me entropokinesis - and my father contributed the enhanced intellect I possess. Side-note: I try not to throw my intellect around; I like having friends. Back to my point: My power enables me to sense weaknesses in things - or, in the case of planetary calamity, overall planetary doom. Tonight is one of those nights. The Veil between the physical and spirit worlds is chafing under collective belief that tonight is when the spirits walk the Earth. The raw entropy of the world is spiking in response to the return of Chthon. But I intend to stop him. Because I know who his chosen host victim is. ------------------------------------------------------ 20:00 hrs EST: ------------------------------------------------------ "You're worrying way too much," Ray teased, ruffling the laurel wreath in Frank's still-short blond hair as they walked to the Salem Center Youth Complex. "I look ridiculous," Frank muttered, adjusting his toga. "Olympian, you tell me. I look like a doof." "Ah, but you could've gone like the original Olympians, and pleased me more," Ray grinned salaciously. Frank kissed her hard on the lips, trying not to ruin her Cleopatra costume, and looked around. "You're magnificent," he whispered, holding Ray close in the moonlight. "Now, if we could just lose -" "You HAVE, dear boy. It's just not apparent yet." The teens shouted as hands grasped their necks, agony shutting down their powers. "Blockbuster, get them back to base before the rest of the brats get here," Scrambler chuckled. "Sinister'll be pleased - HEY !?" Frank heard a familiar voice shout, "LET THEM GO !" - - felt static as they were teleported - - and blacked out. ------------------------------------------------------ Blockbuster bellowed as green fists slammed into his head, felling him before he could call for his fellow Marauders. "Leech is NOT happy, you butcher," the green-skinned boy growled, looking at the metallorganic walls of Sinister's latest base. An odd haze obscured the floor, drifting up into the humid air, as Leech looked around. #Sinister must want to use Frank and Ray for world conquest ... but he didn't count on Leech coming after his pasty white butt,# Leech thought, grimacing. #Leech can track his friends by their power signatures. And when Leech finds them ...# #Leech is going to make the Marauders PAY for the Massacre ...# ------------------------------------------------------ 20:30 hrs EST: ------------------------------------------------------ "Well, just three and a half hours before the end of the world ..." Tom sat, dressed in a plain jacket and jeans, on a set of rocks near the N'Garai cairn on the Xavier property. #Not that the location really matters,# the boy thought, eyeing his tool. #But it's as good a place as any.# He looked over the silver dagger, patting the blade respectfully, and looked into the sky. "I guess I've always been the deep one of my family," Tom said to no one in particular. "Bill's a horndog, Luna the caring one, Chuck the politician ... but I got the brains and the freaky power of my generation. "And it's going to end soon." ------------------------------------------------------ "What do you MEAN they're missing !?" The New Mutants had gathered outside the youth complex, their party costumes set aside for their training uniforms, as Frank's Puppy sniffed the ground and occasionally whimpered. "We gotta find them," Nate whispered, kneeling beside Puppy. "C'mon, boy, you can do it ..." ~MASTER !!!~ Puppy thought, howling as he started to teleport. "Wait a minute !" Chuck ordered - - and they were gone. ------------------------------------------------------ "mmm ..." Frank awoke to the sensation of cold metal against his skin, and looked around. Ray was spread-eagled on a lab table in the swimsuit she'd worn under her costume, an inhibitor collar at her neck. Frank looked down, scowling, to find himself in his own swimsuit and an inhibitor collar, also manacled. "Oh dear. Awake." Frank looked up, rage in his eyes as he saw their captor enter the room. "Sinister," the boy hissed. "We'll fight you, you sick animal." "Dear boy, we have a common cause !" Sinister chuckled. "Besides, you've given me what I desire already - you and Rachel both." He glanced at where Ray was awakening, and gestured towards a pod-shaped object with wires and tubes attached to it. "Behold," Sinister said with a cold smile, "tomorrow in a can." "Your humor is pathetic, Sinister," Ray growled. "You -" Her eyes widened as she breathed, "Oh my God. You're growing our child, aren't you ?" Realization hit Frank, making him gasp. "Oh no ... Sinister, you don't know what you're doing," the boy said sharply. "The last kid of Ray's and mine my family encountered -" "Oh yes, 'Hyperstorm,'" Sinister said, contempt dripping from every word. "Please, Franklin, I am not a fool. I managed to procure a sample of Hyperstorm's DNA - the means do not concern you - and tested it against that of the child in the pod. They are siblings, but not a match - I AM more careful than that." He caressed the pod, an almost-religious expression on his face, and said, "Your offspring's genetic potential is off the scale - Homo Ultima at last. He or she promises to be the greatest mutant I have ever researched." "The greatest WEAPON, you mean," Ray snarled, struggling against her manacles. "I'll kill you before I let you use my child as a slave !" "The child will be this world's salvation," Sinister frowned. "Apocalypse was correct five days ago - yes, I monitored your battle with the High Lord, and the spleen was of my devising - the Celestials pose a threat far beyond anything we can conceive. I believe I know the true threat they pose to our world ... and the means by which to put an end to it." "So let us in on the secret," Frank said, glancing at Ray. "I suppose I can gloat a little," Sinister purred. "Consider this evidence." He played with the controls of his nearest computer panel, generating the holographic image of a Moloid. "These subterranean creatures are mutated Deviants," Sinister said. "Repulsive things, Deviants - from Apocalypse's data banks, I have learded they, with the rest of their ilk, were created by a rogue Celestial imprisoned in New Mexico by his brethern. But WHY should a Celestial turn rogue ?" He paced, looking at the teens, and called up another hologram, this one a cross-section of the Earth exposing its layers. "Having access to Apocalypse's technology, I believe I have found why the 'Dreaming Celestial' turned on his fellows and tried to frustrate their plans," Sinister continued. "The planet's water supply is, by some theories, being dragged into Earth's core by natural action. I believe it is unnatural - and that many more natural resources are being leeched from the planet like yolk from an egg." "That would require an embryo," Frank replied disdainfully. "Precisely," Sinister said, arching an eyebrow. "What would use a planet for an egg ?" Frank and Ray traded looks, and Frank went ashen. "A ... Celestial ?" "Precisely," Sinister said, ice in his tones. "And parahumans are the 'antibodies' to unwittingly protect that gestating embryo. But we are not mindless drones. We are able to realize what is going on beneath us - and stop it." He tapped another key, enlarging the planet's core, and said, "This next image is a high-resonance scan for biogenetic energy, specially attuned to the resonances of a Celestial. I found it most ... intriguing." Ray gasped as the image shifted, revealing something in a fetal position at the world's core. "It ... it can't be ..." Ray breathed. "Consider it the sonogram from hell," Sinister said without humor. "'Rosemary's Baby' on a global scale. Huge, hungry, and approaching full term ... unless it is exterminated before December 31, by my estimate." "And you want OUR child to be the exterminator," Frank spat. "You could do so, but I prefer my weapons broken to my will," Sinister smiled coldly. "And the bun is almost done ... eh ?" The sound of gunfire in the distance made Frank and Ray look up. The door to the lab exploded, and a shocking sight greeted them: Leech wielding two large machine guns, his uniform spattered with blood. "Evening, 'Doc,'" Leech giggled, his grin a mad slash across his face. "I never thought payback could be so much FUN ..." "You - you - the Marauders -" Sinister whispered, looking in Leech's eyes. The geneticist whimpered as the boy closed, taking aim. "Were easy," Leech chuckled. "What's the matter - feeling drained ? Powerless ? Like the Morlocks did ?" "Leech, stop it and get us free ! Sinister's growing a child from Frank's and my DNA to use as a superweapon !" Ray demanded. "Relax, Ray," Leech said, grinning again. "The kid can wait a little. "I WANT TO ENJOY THIS." ------------------------------------------------------ 21:00 hrs EST: ------------------------------------------------------ #He's getting closer,# Tom thought, sensing the spike of entropic energy in the air. He blinked, shifting his senses to detect entropy's "scent" in the air, and looked at a dead and dying place. Where trees had been merely leafless, they now looked grey and skeletal. The grass was rotting, wasted, and the squirrel which approached was missing the sparkle it had by normal sight. And decay was approaching. #Come on then,# Tom thought grimly, nodding. The air screamed, reality bending under the obscenity's presence. #Early ... but I can handle that ...# Red eyes, twin crimson balefire orbs in the aether, regarded Tom with contempt and amusement. #Surprise, you bastard -!# Chthon howled with rage. ------------------------------------------------------ "JESUS !" The New Mutants burst in on Leech, Joe and Bill tackling their teammate to the ground while Chuck disabled his guns. "What the hell are you THINKING, you dope !?" the magnakine demanded, glaring at Leech. "You could've hit Frank and Ray !" "Get OFF me !" Leech screamed. "Sinister deserves to DIE !" "We KNOW that, Leech, but I want to savor his death after a trial," Chuck said harshly, magnetically pinning Sinister to the floor. "By his own kind, of course - the Acolytes'd make a good jury ..." "Chuck, the humans are getting Sinister, and that's that," Ray demanded, thanking Nate as he telekinetically freed her and Frank. "Besides, we've got to -" The kids turned, seeing the gestation pod open, as Sinister perked up. "It's alive ... IT'S ALLLLIIIIIIVVVEEEE !!!" he shouted, grinning. "I always wanted to say that." "What - what IS it ?" Luna breathed, glad suddenly that Lew had taken her hand. Ray reached into the still-sticky mass, wiping off the creature within, and smiled tearfully as she picked "it " up. "My son," she said, looking at the yawning baby in her arms. ------------------------------------------------------ "Well, he certainly checks out all right," Hank said, examining the now cleansed-bundle in Ray's arms. The baby boy cooed a little, accepting the bottle of formula the girl provided him, as they sat on the edge of the medbed. "G-g-g-grandfather - GHKKGLLGL -" Scott wheezed, strapped down and under many sedatives. "He'll get used to it," Jean reassured Ray and Frank. "It's not like you SLEPT together. And Sinister's such a nice dowry, Frank." "I promise I'll be here for you, Ray - and our son," Frank smiled, sitting beside his girlfriend and child. "Like I ever doubted it ?" Ray laughed, kissing his ear. "Want to hold him ?" "Sure," Frank said, carefully taking the baby in his arms. "Wow ... oh, wow ... this is ..." The doors to the medlab were thrown open, startling the mutants and driving the baby to howl in fear. "DOC !" Bill shouted tearfully, handing the body in his arms to Hank. "I found him in the back yard !" Tom coughed, the dagger still in his chest, and wheezed, "H-had to - Chthon would've - possessed me -" "OUT ! Now, all of you !" Hank bellowed, watching as Cecilia ran in to assist. "Stay with me, Thomas - Cece, get me an assessment - Tom, stay with us -" ------------------------------------------------------ NEXT: EVERYTHING changes ... ! ------------------------------------------------------ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ --- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- Join CarClub today and get a $15 Amazon.com Gift Certificate absolutely FREE. Save 10% on gas every time you fill up. 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