Ahab - Enter the Villain

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

Jennie, Marius, and Kyle meet their captor. He is crazy, they're mouthy and scared, and Kyle tries to bite him.



A low murmur of voices could be heard on the other side of the door before it clicked open and then the sounds of footsteps. Slightly uneven, one of the steps sounding harder than the other; a light step, a hard step and a metal click of a cane on the floor. Repeating until it stopped just a handful of paces away from the restrained Xavier's students.

"Pathetic, simply pathetic. I'd have expected better of her precious widdle students, yes I would have."

"Fuck you," Jennie snarled. "Are you going to come and gloat over us or are you going to tell us just what the hell is going on?" Hands tied behind her back, arm that throbbed painfully with each heartbeat, on her knees in a cold room, some guy with a gun, and completely powerless. Her tone was flip and angry, and she hoped it was covering the absolute screaming panic she was experiencing at the moment.

"So impatient the young these days," he sighed, shaking his head at the mercenary in the corner despite the lack of response. "Rush, rush, rush. But we have all the time in the world, my disgusting little mutant, don't you know that?" The cane struck the ground in front of them with a sharp crack that echoed off the walls as he settled his weight on the top of it, hands folded over one another. He took the three of them in, lips curling with disdain. "Moira's best and brightest, I take it? Which only means she's had to fix you or coddle you in someways that none of you ever deserved. Twisted, mutated, should have been left to fend for yourselves instead of going under her care. A waste but not at the same time. Never let it be said that I was a man who threw away even the worst piece of garbage, for you all will be of use to me."

Marius tried to look at the newcomer, but from his angle the only option was to look up, and the man stood in front of a light. It was harsh and unfiltered; the pain wrinkled the Australian's eyes shut, and the motion elicited an entirely different sort of wince. "I'm developin' fond memories of that unconsciousness," he muttered.

"Blah, blah, fucking blah." Kyle said. He still ached from the fight, and it was hard to stay still, even with the restraints. "Seriously dude, whatever your problem is, get some fucking therapy. Because really, this is totally unhealthy." He was scared, but more so, he was furious. What right did this guy have to badmouth Doc Moira?

"Therapy?" Rory Campbell laughed softly to himself. "Well, now, that can certainly be arranged. Not for myself but for the three of you. Lots and lots of therapy. You, boy..." He pointed the cane at Kyle. "So animal like already, I am so going to enjoy watching how the process affects you. My name is Dr. Rory Campbell, though if you speak to me I would suggest...Ahab."

"So what, like the guy chasing the big white phallic symbol?" Jennie laughed derisively. "You won't be able to do a goddamn thing to us, we all hit our panic buttons. Our people are gonna come and they're goinna to fuck you up. Hard."

In an instant, he was inches from her face, teeth bared. "They will never, ever find you!" he yelled. "Even if the panic signal went through to those damned X-Men, do you really think I would have kept you in the same spot whence the signal came from? I'm a fucking genius, you ignorant little brat! I'm smarter than you are, little girl, so keep your tongue in your mouth before I decide to remove it! A Hound needs no voice and you will be my Hounds, all of you. I will twist you and I will break you until you are no longer you. You'll belong to me like Moira belongs to me."

Even disoriented, beaten, and a face that was throbbing in time with the pulse of blood through his veins a snap like that was still enough to jar Marius out of his industrious efforts to free his hands. The boy stared at Rory through the sweat-tangled hair that curled thickly across his swollen face. "Eh . . . mate, pardon for a moment," he said, the words thick, "We're undeniably at your mercy an' that, but . . . I did not understand word one of that dramatic proclamation. What?"

"Mutants. Nature's gross mistake. The next step in human evolution, perhaps, but there's still enough of us pure humans out there to make a difference!" Rory paced in front of the trio, face twisted up with hate as he continued to rant. "Homo sapiens will not be evolution's dead end, not if I have anything to say about it! Round you up, destroy you, burn and rip and tear because you lot do that so well. Imagine, a small boy--sickly, wasting away thanks to his own mutation--deciding one day to rewrite reality. Burning and ripping and tearing my leg off! I should have danced on his grave when he died but I was enthralled with the bitch that birthed him. And where did that get me? Nowhere but on a cold, isolated rock repeating history. Never. Again."

Being fairly involved in even the less popular venues of New York clubs for over a year now the strange man's speech was not particularly original. In fact, Marius found himself drawing distinct similarities between Rory's speech and a man who frequented a certain streetcorner most Friday nights, although the former was admittedly somewhat more washed. On the street he would have ignored it. But now he was tied up, in a strange place, and reasonably certain the school's most immediate security measure was a useless lump of plastic. He looked into Rory's eyes, and even through his puffy, brutalized flesh he felt a cold swell of fear at what he saw there.

Marius had seen that look in a man's eyes before. And this time, he realized, there was little chance of a last-minute teleport.

Not only was this guy nuts, and evil, but he was -emo- "So... you're butthurt because Doc Moira wouldn't, what, have the hot nookie with you and so ... you.. hate.. us?" Kyle said, very slowly. Maybe if they kept him explaining, the X-Men would show up in time to get them. Because whatever this 'process' the guy was talking about, it didn't sound like something he really wanted to do.

Reaching over, Rory cuffed Kyle on the back of the head, only to have to pull back sharply as the young mutant lunged at him, teeth snapping closed on empty air. The two glared at each other for a moment. "I hate you because you're a mistake of nature, but a useful one," Rory said softly, the rage hidden by a calm veneer. His gaze skipped from one student to the other before he eyed Jennie with interest. "Such a pretty little thing, I almost keep forgetting you're a mutant. Such a shame."

Despite the cold fear gnawing at his stomach, yellow eyes narrowed as Marius decided to do the worst thing he could ever do in any situation: speak. "Abduction, rants of genetic superiority, an' now inappropriate comments about a nubile captive," he said, giving Rory an ironic dip of the head and managing every ounce of dripping disdain he'd garnered from his mother's years of lessons even with a face stiff with bruising. "I applaud your ambition, for I do believe you've just achieved a positive on every nefarious cliche on record."

Rory smirked. "Little Muir reject," he said simply before reaching over to grab Jennie by the chin, forcing her to look up at him. "Have you ever...considered red hair, my dear? I think it would look simply fetching on you even after the Hound process has taken over. Hmm, there's an idea..."

Jennie swallowed the sick lurch of bile in her throat, not only was this man a freaking pyschopath, but a skeevy one at that. Hurling, while an attractive option, was not going to work here. Self-preservation instincts that were finely honed over years of being in places where she was often the youngest and most vulnerable person kicked in. Jennie gave Rory her sweetest smile, and spit in his face.

"Little bitch!" He shoved her face away and wiped the spittle before it ran in his eyes. "Let us hone this childish energy, shall we?" Rory spun on his heel and walked to the door, stopping to look over at the guard. "Start the process. Be a good boy and make sure they scream."