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[x-polarisstar.livejournal.com]

No. They're just children." She stared at Magneto in shock looking down at the folder in her hands, "You can't do this." She'd said that before, it felt like hundreds of times now. The words almost didn't make sense anymore, just a ritual phrase every time he placed one of these folders in her hands.

"Those children are the reason you're here. How do you feel about them now?" He waved a hand and dismissed the question unanswered, "In any case, I'm not doing anything. You are. You have your orders. Don't disappoint me."

No choice.

...but they're just children.
---------

"Josh how can you not think this is a bid deal!? It's two weeks into the school year and you are already failing Geometry and English! Mom is so not going to be happy, you realize this right?" Karen rolled her eyes at her obnoxious little brother, as they turned a corner, heading for home after school. She gripped the strap of her messenger bag harder so as not to give in to the temptation to strangle he little brother.

Josh, on the other hand, wasn't worried. Shaking his head to get blonde bangs out of his eyes, he just smirked over at his older sister, hand jammed down into his pockets. "She's not going to be nearly as upset as when she find out you aren't going to FOH meetings anymore and back to Tai Chi with that freak…"

Karen's eyes went wide as she wasn't aware Josh had even noticed. "You tell them, I swear to god, Joshua, that you won't see the end of your freshman year..."

Josh just laughed at her pain.

The pair turned and cut down the alley between the furniture store and the retirement home, just like they did every day on their way home. It cut ten minutes off their trip and there was always the odd chance that something cool would be thrown away. It was also, except for the silent, curtained windows of the senior apartments, totally hidden from view.

Precisely the circumstance that she was looking for. Malice waited for them, her hands in her pockets, standing directly in their path. Her hair was uncovered though her sunglasses remained on her face.

Both teenagers stopped their bickering when they saw their way blocked. Karen opened her mouth to politely ask the woman to move but Josh being the arrogant teenager he was, took a step forward and sneered, "Get out of our way freak." Earning him a slap on the arm from Karen.

"Excuse my little brother. His mouth isn't always attached to his brain."

"That seems to run in the family, Miss Foley." Malice raised at eyebrow at them. "After all, you're the one who was foolish enough to record details of technology that could be harmful to mutants in your diary, right?" She smiled pleasantly.

Karen blinked in surprise. Sure she had written about Dani's bracelet in her journal but no one could know that unless...Forgetting the situation for a moment, she hit Josh hard upside the head with a glare that promised more later. Then she turned back to the woman. "Excuse me Miss but what business of that is yours? And if I may ask, how did you find out?"

"Through Joshua here, of course. A very helpful young man. Even if he does want to hit me for the color of my hair." Malice pulled her hand out of her pocket and ran it through her hair casually, brushing it away from her face. "You see, Joshua told the leaders of your little band of bigots all about the bracelet. And they told their leaders. And those leaders told their financial backer." She smiled brilliantly, "That would be my father."

Both teenagers' eyes went wide at that. The person calling the shots of the Friends of Humanity was a mutant? Karen stayed rooted to the spot in shock but Josh took another step forward almost face to face to with the green-haired woman. "That can't be true freak. We were created to rid the earth of scum like you!" His anger and hurt was plain in his voice.

"You were created to give us a way to follow your sick minds. I'm sure you've heard the saying 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'?" Sliding her other hand from her pocket, she fell into a more relaxed stance from which she could easily defend herself if he chose to take a swing at her. "The best way to neutralize a threat is to control it."

Josh growled softly in his throat and before Karen had time to step forward to stop him, Josh took a swing at the woman who was demeaning his very life.

She blocked it easily and caught his wrist, twisting his arm around and locking it painfully. "Stupid. Little boys shouldn't play at being tough." A sharp blow to his elbow made his arm pop sickeningly.

Josh cried out in pain and would have fallen to the ground if the woman hadn't been still holding his wrist in her steel grip. Karen screamed and ran a few steps forward but still kept space between her and the woman. "Please, just let him go...We won't tell anyone else about the technology we swear..." A tear ran down her cheek as the cool air of efficiency around this woman made her fear for her little brother.

Malice let him go and he landed on his knees, still clutching his arm. "No," and she smiled to herself, amused by something only she knew, "you certainly won't." She placed a hand on Josh's head, almost like a priest giving benediction and he twitched and collapsed.

Again Karen screamed and fell to her knees next to her brother. She gathered his head in her lap as she checked to make sure he was all right. After checking his pulse and making sure he was breathing all right, she looked up fearfully at the green-haired woman. "What did you do to him? Why are you doing this?!"

"My father asked me to. He wanted to be sure that the knowledge of what the inhibitor was and how it worked stayed a secret." The explanation was strangely matter of fact as though she was detailing how she'd been sent to the store to pick up some milk. "Do you know how magnetic fields work?"

Karen shook her head but the cool calm in the other's manner caused her to hold her brother tighter and glance around for a possible means of escape.

Malice shook her head, "Terrible educational standards. This is why I was sent to a private school where they cared about giving us a good basis in the sciences. Oh well, it would take too long to explain. Suffice to say that a spinning magnetic field creates an electrical charge that when properly applied to the brain..." Her lips twitched into a smile as Karen jerked and collapsed on top of her brother, "then it short-circuits. Sleep well, children."

--

Manuel walked through the seedier part of Salem Center, looking for this rumoured used CD store that he’d heard about. He was having no luck with it so far, but he was just killing time anyway while the tailors worked on altering his new suit. He paused as he felt something, something he’d not experienced in over a year now.

Smiling, whistling a cheerful little tune that his mother had taught him, Manuel followed the feeling. Over a block or so, by the retirement home. He almost thought the feeling came from in there, but as he got closer he noticed that it was close to, but not in the building. The retirement home, however, felt reassuringly familiar to him. Depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness, memories of those long-past, even the struggle to hang on, to survive. – those he knew well. Shrugging, he stepped into the alleyway and slowly walked down it, eyes glowing just faintly red as he pushed outwards a bit with his power.

When he came to the source of the familiar and comfortable feeling, he sagged against the wall. Children. Blank, vacant, drooling children. He knew the look well – their bodies lived, but whatever they had that passed for a mind had long-since splintered into uselessness. A quick empathic Look confirmed it for him – nothing in their minds made any sense whatsoever.

Manuel knelt down next to them, heedless of the dirt and grime that was sticking to his slacks. ~Hola.~ he told them sadly, trying to elicit any sort of coherent response from them. A girl and a boy – the boy in his early teens, the girl older. Related, unless he missed his guess. ~I know a man who might be able to help you.~ he told them in his native tongue, and then pushed out with his feelings and his thoughts both.

~Senhor headmaster?~ he mindcalled. ~Pardon the interruption, but you need to see this. It’s …~ he said, intending to give Charles the time, but when he went to double-check on it he noticed that his watch had stopped. Curious – it was only a few months old, and was working perfectly this morning. Tapping it, he shrugged. ~I don’t know what time it is. But there are two children here who have been mindraped. I can’t get a coherent feeling from either of them on anything above the autonomic.~ he relayed. ~See them through my eyes. Feel them through my heart.~ he asked, opening himself to the headmaster.