psinex@yahoo.com Honor Thy Father by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: Everyone here is Marvel's, except for Steven, who's mine. Sunnydale is probably the property of 20th Century Fox. Please don't sue. WARNING: This is NOT a fluffy story. Anyone unsettled by torture, foul language and abuse of several kinds should run while they can. NOTES: NO, I'm not trying to rip off Alicia's Broken. Steve and Nate ARE quite different (even for fraternal twins) ... besides, Alicia's a better author, and I tip my hat to her. (I was having Sinister commit microchip implants on innocents before Alicia was, anyhow.:/) (Lovely Friday fic, ain't it ?) CONTINUITY: This falls under my Reverse Polarity work as sort of a "behind-the-scenes" piece during Blood and Iron Chapter 1 ... ------------------------------------------------------ Sunnydale, Calif.: 8/29/2003: noon: ------------------------------------------------------ "Well, they got off all right," Jean Summers smiled despite the already-growing sense of loss at her four eldest children's departure for the Massachusetts Academy. "Yeah," Scott said, pulling the car into the driveway with his usual deep reply. The couple's youngest, Steven, sat in the back with a dour look. #It's STILL not fair,# he thought, lamenting his siblings' departure and his continued presence. #So my powers're still little. I'm as smart as Nate ...# "You OK, honey ?" Jean asked as they got out of the car. "Uh ... I guess," Steve shrugged, slamming his car door without much gusto. "'M gonna go to the beach, OK ?" "Just be careful - hey, want someone to tag along ?" Scott offered. Steve's face lit up beneath golden bangs - like Buffy and Rachel, he and Nate had ended up being fraternal twins. Steve had inherited his long-deceased grandmother Kate's gold hair and blue eyes, rather than the red and green of his mother's family. "Sure," Steve said. "I wore my trunks to the airport - race ya !" Jean smiled as her "men" peeled off their shirts and headed for the beach down behind their home, tossing their shoes aside. #Sunnydale was such a blessing,# Jean thought, checking the machine. #14 years ... Scott's a successful captain with the local lifeguards, and I ...# She looked at herself sideways in the full-length mirror on the back of her front hallway closet door and grinned, "Four kids and I still have a nice butt. Eat your heart out, Betsy." "I'll do more'n eat y'r heart, sweets," a feral voice taunted from the ceiling. Jean spun around - #whohowdidtheygetpastmytelepathyStevieSCOTT-# The room filled with flame, and Jean knew no more. ------------------------------------------------------ "You think I could be a lifeguard someday ?" Steve asked Scott as they tossed a frisbee around on the beach. "Kid, you can be whatever you want," Scott smiled. His heart sank when Steve's eyes filled with tears, and the boy sat on the sand. "Except a hero," Steve mumbled. "My powers stink, an' Miss Frost didn't want me to come 'cause I'll never GET powers like Nate. He's got TK, tepe, the whole deal - our mindlink's even gone !" "Steve, you don't have to be Nate," Scott began, kneeling down beside his son. "We love you guys just the same. You don't have to have powers." "You - Dad, LOOK !" Steve yelled, wide-eyed. Scott winced as their house erupted into flame, and felt something in his head go dark. #JEAN !?# he thoughtcried - - before something sharp struck his back. "DAD!" Steve shouted. Scott tried to reach for him, but his vision went dim. He saw his son's tanned form fall to the ground, and dark figures standing over them. "Superb work," a proper, formal English voice rang out - #A VOICE-Voice,# a detached part of Scott's psyche commented before he blacked out. ------------------------------------------------------ "Jeannie ?" "Mmmm ... STEVIE ! SCOTT !" Jean sat bolt-upright, sickened by the scent of burnt wood and the emptiness at the base of her skull. She looked up and saw Logan kneeling over her, his eyes full of sympathy. "What happened ?" Jean asked, refusing to let the X-Men - #Blue, Ororo's squad,# she realized - help her up. Her eyes narrowed at the sheer destruction of her home, and she cast her thoughts out to find her husband and son. "My rapport with Scott's been cut off somehow," Jean said, turning to Ororo, Kitty, Piotr, Logan and Psylocke. "What happened - how long've I been out ?" "About an hour," Ororo said, trying to hide the fear in her tone. "Somehow, you kept up a telekinetic shield as the house burned." "FORGET me, Ororo," Jean pleaded. #They're not telling me something, what's going on,# she thought, looking at Logan with a demanding stare. He coughed, then looked back and swallowed hard before continuing. "Jeannie ... we found Scott an' Steve's suits on th' beach," he mumbled. "They were teleported outta their swimtrunks t'wherever they are now." "WHO ?" Jean demanded, glaring at them, her demeanor shattering under the tears in Kitty's eyes. "The Marauders," Ororo whispered. Jean's knees wobbled, and she let Logan catch her. "I'm all right - get me to Westchester damnit !" she snarled, forcing down her terror. "Jeannie, we got ev'rybody lookin'," Logan said, trying to calm her. The look in Jean's eyes scared even him when she asked, "My other kids ?" "Safe at the Academy," Ororo said. "Emma and Sean have activated all security protocols - without human students on campus, the New Mutants are free to utilize all of their available technology to defend themselves." "Then I'm going with you," Jean demanded. Ororo began to speak, but Jean added, "I don't CARE if it's been a decade and a half since I saw action, Ororo ! If it were Forge, you'd demand the same thing !" "You're right," Ororo nodded, after a few seconds. "Then let's go," Jean said. She looked at the milling authorities - the X-Men among them, since the X-teams had gone "legit" in 2000 with Val Cooper's sponsorship - and signed off on a few forms, her glare driving back any inquiries as to what happened. ------------------------------------------------------ Scott felt like someone had tried to strangle him with a towel shoved down his throat. That, and he was naked. #I HATE that combination,# he tried to laugh, feeling air blowing over him and an odd tingling across his body. He felt a tightness at his throat, and opened his eyes gingerly. #Inhibitor collar,# he realized, #and I'm floating in midair - Steve ?# "Steve ?" Scott called, opening his eyes wider. "Dad ... ?" Steve called, terror and exhaustion competing for room in his voice. Scott flung his eyes all the way open, and felt his heart drop again. They were upright, spreadeagled against opposite walls of a large room with lab equipment spread on various tables. What sickened Scott the most was Steve's own nakedness, and his son's suddenly short - nearly to the scalp short - hair. "Who the HELL would do this ?" Scott growled. "Steve, you OK ?" "I feel sick," Steve mumbled, looking at Scott with a blush. "Dad, why'd they take our trunks ?" "Such an inquisitive lad," that VOICE called. Scott looked at the floor as it irised open to admit a tall, pale-faced man wearing black leather. "Sinister," Scott frowned. "The X-Ment told me about you, but I never thought I'd have the misfortune to meet you." "Ah, Scott ... my mental blocks worked well indeed," Sinister smiled in a predatory fashion. Scott felt tendrils pierce his mind, and he grunted as his memories flipped before his sight. #What the - the ORPHANAGE ?# he gasped mentally, seeing himself in Steve, only with darker hair. Scott fought down nausea as he recognized the bullies, and Nathan - the black-haired mystery boy who "defended" him as often as he taunted Scott = looming overhead. Scott returned to the here and now as Sinister chortled, "Think, Scott. Isn't this familiar ? The room ? Me ?" Steve gasped, and Scott gaped as Sinister shrank, his flesh flowing. And Nathan stood before Scott as if no time had passed. "It was ALWAYS me, Scott," Sinister taunted in a boyish voice, form and tone reverting to his adult status as he shifted shape once more. "I tried to turn you to my will, but I eventually realized that Xavier could give you what I never could - control, and the chance to meet the woman who would breed you heirs of unfathomable power." "Leave Steven - ALL my children - ALONE !" Scott raged, straining against his force field. Sinister smiled and stroked Steve's shorn head through the field, almost whispering, "Steven is the most puzzling one of all, you know. Buffy has her psionic immunity - making her a true danger to me - Rachel and Nathan are just-dawning stars in terms of psionics - but Steven is the quiet one. I wonder, little one, is it fear of your true potential ?" "No ... please," Steve moaned. Sinister held a hand against the boy's head, and both began to glow briefly. Scott snarled again, but stopped when Steve screamed. And Sinister hit HIS knees. "ENOUGH !" Sinister snarled, lashing out. Steve's cry was cut off abruptly, and he looked around in terror as blood dripped from his nose. "D-Dad ... ?" Steve cried. He moaned when Sinister held his head back and reached into a nearby cabinet for a sticklike device with circuitry attached to one end. "You magnificent, poor child," Sinister sighed. "I'm afraid i'm going to have to implant you with a neuropsionic regulator. It will limit your psionic energy production, and allow you to begin to master that magnificent Omega-class telepathy. You'd burn out otherwise." "NO ! You're going to brainwash him, aren't you !?" Scott yelled. Sinister grinned as he held the circuitry to Steve's left temple and said, "The implant DOES come with a neural interface jack. Steven will be able to be linked to a computer for ... tutoring." "NoOOOOO ...." Steve pleaded, sweating and tearing up as the circuitry began to enter his flesh. He gasped once as it was shoved into his skull, but a look of surprise crossed his face as Sinister withdrew the implantation probe. Only a tiny socketlike orifice remained visible at Steve's temple. "Y-you ... it didn't hurt ... ?" Steve gulped as Sinister placed an inhibitor collar on him. "I'm not THAT much of a sadist," Sinister shrugged, turning to Scott with a widening grin. "I wanted your FATHER to suffer knowing you'll be joining me soon." Steve looked at Scott apologetically, mouthing, "I'm sorry ..." "You did nothing wrong !" Scott moaned. "I love you, son ..." "I love you too, Dad," Steve said louder, smiling despite his tears. He refused to cry out as Sinister plugged a probe into his neural interface, and began to type on a computer terminal nearby. "And ... there we are," Sinister said. Steve gasped once, then looked at Sinister oddly as the geneticist removed the probe. "What ... ?" Steve gulped. "I downloaded your memories. They have to be edited before I can just go and reprogram you," Sinister said. "Enjoy your last few hours as a Summers, Steven. Soon, you will be a Marauder ..." He left, cackling as he descended through the floor hatch. The fields surrounding Scott and Steve collapsed, and they hugged each other. "Oh God, Steve ... I'm sorry," Scott said in a thick voice. "You didn't do it, Dad !" Steve pleaded, looking in Scott's eyes. "I ... I don't hate you ..." "Thanks, son," Scott said. His eyes filled, and Steve was shocked to see Scott cry. "Dad ... I ..." Steve gulped, sitting beside his dad. "I'm sorry," Scott said, shaking his head. He wiped his eyes and said, in a stronger voice, "You shouldn't see me like this." "You're bein' ... open, tho'," Steve said gently. He smiled despite their situation and added, "You're so quiet a lotta the time." "That stops," Scott said. "You deserve to know you're a great kid more often than I've been telling you. Now, we're gonna get out of here. Somehow." "OHHH, SCOOOO - GHURACK !?" The Summers' men's eyes widened when Sinister - and a few body parts from various Marauders - came shooting up THROUGH the floor. Steve grinned widely when Jean exploded the floor, catching them in a telekinetic web and hugging her son to her. "My BABY ! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, SINISTER !!" Jean screamed. She tore the inhibitors off of Scott and Steve, handing Scott his glasses as she mindripped Sinister and exploded the entire fortress. "Mom, I'm OK - well, sorta," Steve said. His eyes filled with tears as he felt his neural jack, and Jean hugged him as she set Sinister's fried corpse on the ground. "Oh baby ... we're gonna help you, OK ?" she cried, finding a blanket to wrap Steve in. Scott accepted another from Logan, while Ororo looked at Sinister with a horrified gaze. "He ... Jean, he -" "HE DESERVED IT," Jean hissed. "Let's get out of here ..." The Summers followed the X-Men to the Blackbird while Jean rebuilt her psi-rapport with Scott. ~Stevie's power triggering was what tipped us to your whereabouts,~ Jean sent, hugging Scott. ~Will he be OK ? Really ?~ Scott sent, seeing Steve curl up in a corner of the Blackbird and fall asleep. ~He's a tough kid,~ Jean replied, strapping in beside her son. She took Scott's hand and smiled softly, "Blame yourself and I'll do bad things to you. The Marauders took us by surprise, Scott - we've never fought them, and now we'll never have to." "Never - ?" Scott asked. The X-Men gasped when a giant firebird erupted from the orphanage, and Scott gaped at Jean. "Remember I said there was a tiny bit of Phoenix-taint in me still ?" Jean said, watching the flames consume Sinister's works. "It's gone. And I can't think of a better parting." ------------------------------------------------------ TBC IN: Blood and Iron ... ------------------------------------------------------ END _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com