Shake Hands With The Devil: Frustration

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Crystal stops Laurie from making a grave mistake.



Laurie launched herself into a dead run from where she'd been sitting with Yvette, headed for the front gate of the camp. She needed to find the children, she couldn't let anything happen to them after she'd let their father die.

Once again, Crystal caught sight of a figure sprinting across the camp. For a few moments, Crystal watched her former suite mate, then frowned slightly. Perhaps Laurie simply needed to run, she did like to exercise that way after all, but in their current location and situation it was best to avoid assumptions like that.

Crystal didn't want to assume that anything was wrong, and Laurie and Yvette generally seemed to get along, but perhaps something had happened to upset Laurie? Rising up into the air a little less than a foot more than she already was, Crystal moved through the air after Laurie, catching up to the younger girl a moment later.

Laurie felt the change in air currents and glanced up to see Crystal hovering close by, but couldn't spare the time to stop. "There's problems at the gates!" she called up to her former suite mate. "We've got to get there before more people are hurt."

"At the gates?" Crystal matched speed with Laurie. "Is this inside of the camp or outside of it?"

"I'm not sure, outside, I think. I heard screams." Laurie said, her strides lengthening as she neared the front of the camp, and finally got a good look at the chaos. People were trying to get in, or running into the forest hotly pursued by what looked like Government forces. "Crystal, we've got to stop them."

Abruptly, a wall of air sprang into being in front of Laurie, blocking the teen's path. Less than a second later, Crystal was in front of it and Laurie, eyes narrowed slightly. "Oh, is that so?"

Laurie had been so intent on her mission that she'd not felt the air in front of her change until she'd run smack into it and bounced off slightly. She stood now, giving Crystal a look of dawning disbelief. "Crystal, what the hell are you doing? Those people out there, they need our help. We need to save them."

She moved sideways, trying to find a way around the barrier Crystal had erected and found solid air wherever she moved. Frustrated, she banged a fist against it, glaring at the other girl. "Stop it! Let me through, please!"

"Lauren Olivia Collins," Crystal intoned, fixing Laurie with a stare. "Please forgive me for phrasing it this way, but you and what army? This is not New York, and we are not the X-Men! We cannot simply go running off, attacking people who are here on behalf of this country's government."

"No, this isn't New York, and those troops aren't just going to give these people a ticket, Crystal." Laurie snapped, standing, hands on hips, as she glared at her. "You have to let me by, I can help them!"

"No," Crystal said firmly but calmly. "You cannot. You might think that you are helping, and perhaps you will save a few individual people, at least for the moment, but what will happen after that?"

"I..." Laurie began, but fell silent as the realities of the situation became apparent to her. What could she do? Out here, in a foreign country with no backup and only a few people who really had the training it would take to bring Government troops to heel. And what of all the people who would be hurt in the meantime?

The fact that what Crystal said was logical and true didn't make it any less painful, or acceptable. Laurie's eyes closed on the wetness of tears and she opened them to give the other girl a helpless look. How could she abandon these people to their fate? How could she not, and survive.

"Please." she said finally, shoulders slumping as she said the word. Please help me, please make the choice easier, please don't let this be happening. Just that, just 'please'.

"Laurie." Crystal's voice was gentle now as she continued to try to explain the situation to Laurie, not knowing that the younger blonde already realized the truth in her words. "What would happen if one or both of us attempted to stop the Guard, or we asked others to join us? Could we stop them? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. We would have the element of surprise on our side, and we could have a rather impressive array of mutant abilities at our disposal, but these guards are neither stupid nor untrained, and I would think that they should know that there are mutants here. What if we did manage to stop them? Do you think that no one would notice? Do you believe that there would not be repercussions, both for the people who live in this area and for whoever was in the attack? An attack it would be, even if you would start it with the best of intentions. This is neither the time nor the place for attempting heroics, Laurie." Save that for the X-Men.

"What good am I even doing in being here if I can't save anyone?" Laurie replied, before she turned and attempted to walk back to the huts, only to bump into another solid wall of air. Crystal had obviously not wanted her going anywhere. "Let me out, Crystal. I promise I won't do anything stupid."

Crystal gave Laurie a small nod, allowing the air walls around Laurie to resume their natural state of being. She couldn't help thinking this was definitely not the typical Red X mission, not the type of helping out the people from the mansion in Red X were used to being a part of. And yet, wasn't this what those in Red X did, helped out during an unfortunate situation? This was not a natural disaster, and the help they were giving now was not at all part of their reason for coming to this Red Cross camp, but last week there had been no way to know that scenes such as the ones involving the injured man who refused help would be played out right in front of their eyes?

Laurie looked toward the front gate again for a moment, as if trying to decide whether it was worth trying to get around Crystal. Finally, she simply turned and walked away, saying nothing further at all.

Crystal watched Laurie walk off, hoping the young woman would keep her word to not "do anything stupid." Laurie had been forced to make some rather unpleasant decisions during the past few days, and they hadn't been the right ones, at least not right away. Hopefully, once they were away from the horrors that were now happening right in front of their eyes, Laurie would be able to think back and realize what could have just happened if Crystal had not stopped her from making what would have been a tragic mistake. Crystal was certain that she had just saved Laurie's life.

Crystal sighed, then spoke in a whisper. "Please do not hate me, Laurie."