Age of Apocalypse: Down the Rabbit Hole - Operation of Resistance Forces

[x-eidolon.livejournal.com]

Those chosen to follow Rachel back are immediately psionically ripped out to join her in a sudden transition into her world. As they do, a summary of events of Rachel’s world are shoved into Remy's mind.



Darkness was an assassin's friend and a thief's armour. Remy always felt more comfortable in the night, obscured by shadows or muddled by the random lights of the city. It allowed him to operate anonymously, without restrictions, and to disappear at will. Things had changed, of course. The night hadn't used to involve a quiet home or a few hours of sleep next to his wife, of all things. However, comparing the smooth dark skin of his wife's back against his chest to the joys of racing across a midnight rooftop in the rain, he had to admit that one was certainly an improvement.

The sounds outside the window were both familiar and new; the trial faced by any global traveller. Tokyo, like all big cities, sounded relatively the same in general. It wasn't until it the punctuated by specifics; raised voices in Japanese, the different profile of the street traffic from undersized engines, the lack of intermittent train rattle, that underlined this was a different place. For once, their cover had required them to standout; the Milanese financier and his North African former model wife, invited to a party that also happened to have a major mutant trafficker in attendance. Remy had the easy job of replacing his phone; Ororo's deft hands were trusted with the bugged watch. Neither move drew so much as a hesitation before they quit the party and checked in for a few hours of sleep ahead of their flight.

When she disappeared, his first thought was another nightmare. Gambit had not returned willingly to his memories, and something from the demon had stayed with him. The memories weren't settled, and he occasionally caught him mimicking casual motions when not paying attention. He filed it away for a talk with the Professor, adding to his mental list.

This was a new one; a shattered city and the sound of gunfire in the streets. Lagos, or maybe Somalia? He couldn't place it off the top of his head. His feet were firmly planted on the dusty ground, but he couldn't shake the sensation of falling, tumbling towards something as he looked around.

__________



Flashback: Amanda and Billy offer Topaz a new path to walk after the deaths of her family.



In the end, she wouldn't have been able to say who actually killed them.

Everyone had become the same, no "good" or "bad" guys. Apocalypse's forces wanted to kill Alice and Luca for not being mutants, and the resistance had latched onto the magic-using family in hopes of turning them into soldiers. Except they didn't want to be involved in the fight.

So instead, the Ashdowns ran.

Or they ran until they were cornered, at least. Whether it was actually by the people who were trying to kill them or by the people who wanted to recruit them, it didn't matter when Luca lashed out, trying to protect his family.

And all hell broke loose.

When the dust settled, the only person left standing was the tiny, dark-skinned young woman Luca and Alice had been trying to defend. Topaz pressed back against the wall, her eyes sweeping over the bodies in the room - five in all. Three strangers. And her parents.

After a moment Topaz fell into a crouch, still staring, her gaze settling on Luca and Alice.

Now what?

The ceiling rippled , two pairs of feet appearing, swiftly followed by two pairs of legs, two bodies and two heads. Two people, in fact. The shorter of the two was a woman with raggedly cut blonde hair and weirdly glowing eyes - one moment they were the flashing blue of a police car's light, the next the red of a stoplight. Across her face crawled what at first looked like an intricate tattoo of brickwork... but then it shifted and became instead plaster and lath.

"'Ello, 'ello, 'ello," she intoned, for a moment brass buttons and a blue jacket appearing over her clothes. "What's all this then?"

The young man stepped away from his partner. At first glance, the wild black hair and tattered red cape that flapped behind him might seem unpredictable, but as the energy from their teleportation spell faded, the gaze that surveyed the area was clearly hard and calculating. The power from his locator spell began to fade until eyes settled on the first body. "Damn it all," Billy cursed. "We're too late, Day. Keep your eyes open. We could still have company," he admonished, hoping her spell hadn't addled her too much. A blue glow flared around him as he began drawing on the all-too-familiar chaotic power of the death around them, hoping it would be enough if Amanda wasn't up for an emergency return trip.

Topaz had jerked up the second she'd heard Amanda's accent, prepared to attack. Didn't the tossers give up? If Billy hadn't spoken, she would have attacked them without a second thought, but the American accent put her off just a bit. Were there Americans working with the English resistance? Energy crackled around her hand as she brought it up, levelling it with the intruders. "Who the hell are you?" She snarled. Two against one, she didn't stand a chance. But she was going down fighting.

Billy whirled at the sound of the voice, summoning lightning as he turned to defend himself. His eyes widened as they fell on Topaz. "You...you're aliv--wait, wait," he said, noticing the energy surrounding her. He slowly lifted his hands into the air, though the peaceful gesture was somewhat marred by stray electricity bolts that arced between his hands as he tried to ground himself. "We're here to help," he explained, though his eyes nervously flickered to the bodies around them, wondering who actually needed the help.

"Better late than never," the woman he'd called "Day" informed Billy brightly. It was becoming increasingly clear she wasn't all there. "Time for us to be away on our toes, sunshine," she added to Topaz. "A man's home is his castle and we've got a castle-castle waiting. Safe and sound and snug as a bug."

Topaz pressed closer to the wall, not relaxing - if anything, the energy crackled brighter, especially as the nutter kept talking. She wasn't sure which of the two was the more dangerous. "I don't need your bloody help," she informed them harshly. "And you can go back and tell your leader or whatever that I'm not interested." Her eyes flicked back to Luca and Alice, and for the briefest moment her expression shifted. No, she wouldn't go with them. At this point, she'd rather die.

"I count five dead bodies that say you do," Billy snapped back, his patience for these kind of responses long expired. He immediately regretted the outburst and sighed, trying to continue with more tact. "Look, they're not going to stop just because they didn't get you this time. They'll send more. And more. And more until they do. If you want to face that on your own, be my guest, but personally, I'd rather stick with people like me who are trying to stop this kind of stuff. I'm Asgardian, or Az for short, or..." he hesitated a moment, "Or...Billy. And we've got your back, if you want it," he offered, hoping Amanda wouldn't say anything to chase her away. Not that he was doing such a bang-up job either.

"'And I'm a Daytripper, one way ticket, yeah...'" Amanda half-sang, not terribly well. The city's influence was starting to fade, her appearance slowly returning to a normal - if slightly ragamuffin - woman in her mid-twenties. "Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide... do we have a deal for you!"

It took a long moment, but finally Topaz lowered her hand, letting the energy fade away. That's not to say she relaxed at all - she was still ready to fight if it came to it. However, impatient as he might have been, she knew Billy was being sincere. "I'm Topaz," she finally said shortly. "What do you want from me?" The words weren't as rude as they might have seemed at first glance. More resigned than anything else.

"Well, I'll assume you don't want to go anywhere without an explanation, but no reason we can't be comfortable," Billy responded as he glanced around the room, eyes settling on some broken wooden chairs in the corner. I want the chairs fixed," he said, his voice taking on a distant quality as he chanted. The blue glow extended to cover the furniture, which began rearranging and repairing itself until three chairs were whole again. Possibly a frivolous use of limited power, but it got them away from the bodies. He crossed the room, straddling the farthest one and forcing the others to face away from the destruction in the room.

"Basically, to help us stop this kind of stuff from happening," he tried to explain, nodding toward the other chairs. "We're doing everything we can, but Apocalypse has a lot of people. We can only be in so many places at once, and too often, we're too late. We either need a time-traveler or...someone on the inside."

Amanda followed Billy's lead docilely, sitting in almost the exact same manner as him. She wrinkled her nose as the mention of Apocalypse. "Billy-boy is right," she affirmed, making more sense as the city's influence let her think more clearly. "And Poccy knows all of us. We need a new face. Someone with a reason to want to bring him down. Humpty Dumpty and a great fall."

Topaz didn't sit, though she did turn so she was facing them - moving away from the wall at last. It was progress. "So...what, you want to put me on the inside?" She asked, slightly disbelieving. "That's a lot of trust to put into someone you don't know." Which wasn't a straight out no, I won't do it. She didn't trust them for a minute, but she had the advantage of being able to read their emotional states. And she was willing to hear them out. "Who're you with?" Because they definitely weren't from the English resistance.

"Well, we know you're not with him already or he wouldn't be trying so hard to get you," Billy explained. "That's more than we can count on most the time. And if he wants you on his side, that gives you the perfect cover. Something else we don't have." He fell quiet a moment, considering how to answer her last question. "We're trying to build a place for mutants who don't want their lives run by Apocalypse or to be used by humans as a weapon against him. We'll tell you what we can, but...well, to be honest, there's stuff we're not going to share with someone that's not with us. And if you are going to be our ears on the inside, there's still stuff that it's better if you don't know," he said, leaving the "just in case you get caught" implied but unspoken.

She was silent, letting Billy explain with no discernible reactions - she was good at keeping that out of her expression. She was well and prepared to tell Billy to take his mad woman and get lost, but something in the back of her mind stopped her. She pressed her lips together for a moment, thinking.

"How noble," was the flat, toneless answer Topaz finally settled for. Still not a no, so Billy was doing better than the English resistance and Apocalypse's forces. "I'm not saying I won't do it," she said slowly after another moment. Because really, her only other option was to keep running, and without Luca and Alice that was just as likely to get her killed. "But I'm sure you can understand my hesitation. It's not every day people drop out of the ceiling and say, 'Hey, be our spy!'"

"I don't have time for 'Noble," Billy said, his shrug at odds with the hard tone of his voice. "'Noble' gets you killed. And killed is about the only thing that does happen every day. Nothing else is that surprising anymore. If you want some passionate plea, sorry, I ran out of those months ago. Give her," he nodded toward Amanda, "a few hours and maybe she can come up with one."

Amanda giggled and shook her head. "No speeches, not today. No Henry in the breach, it's not St Crispian's Day. Just us, three of a kind, freaks of the freaks." She grinned knowingly at Topaz and snapped her fingers, a small ball of light appearing. "You want something done, you do it yourself. And all there is is just yourself now."

Topaz raised an eyebrow in Amanda's direction, watching the light dance around. "Wasn't really looking for a speech, actually. I was just trying to buy myself some time to think." She watched the light for another brief moment. "Alright." She gave finally. What did she have left to lose? "You got yourselves a spy."

Billy sat a moment, looking Topaz up and down. Her agreement didn't mean trust, but he suspected the feeling was mutual. At least for now. Finally, he nodded and stood. "We'll fill you in on the details later, but for now, let's get the hell out of here before more goons show up." He glanced over at Amanda, wondering at the potential damage of another teleport so soon. He quickly tested the lingering chaos in the area, then instead suggested, "How about I take us home?" Home. The word conjured a brief image of a small apartment on the Upper West Side. He quickly banished it, and fixing Muir Island in his mind, he began to chant. "I want to go home, there's no place like home.. A few moments later, there was a blue flash, and when it faded, the eyes of the dead stared blankly at the empty room.

__________



Flashback: An unwitting Tandy stands in the way of the Frost sisters’ reunion



Adrienne had to hand it to the rebels- their underground survival "schools" were things of beauty. Not only were their lessons on staying out of the hands of Apocalypse and his allies informative and well-taught, but the movable campuses ran with military precision. Everyone knew their tasks when the school became compromised, and the staff were extremely well-informed about when these compromises were about to happen. The whole operation seemed remarkably easy to tear down and rebuild in another location, erasing all traces that it had ever existed in the first place. As a result of the efficiency and intelligence of these operations, it had taken Adrienne a very long time to finally pin one down, even with her psychometric powers. Adrienne had started to think that her sister, who headed up these makeshift schools, had been blessed with extremely good luck on top of the good intel and obedient staff it took to carry on this long.

But Emma's luck was about to run out.

The psychometrist wrinkled her nose as she looked down at herself and what she'd done to get herself into 'character'; filthy, torn clothing, the expertly made-up bruises, the disheveled hair. Up until now, the hardest part had possibly been the fact that she hadn't let herself bathe in a number of days. In a way it had been fortuitous, though, as her preparations had reminded her just why exactly she did what she did: because she couldn't live this way, not for real. Good food, good clothes, access to soap and a comfortable bed comprised only a few of the many reasons why it was better to ally herself with Apocalypse than live like a rat being hunted, the way these rebels did. Much better to be the hunter, to go out occasionally and bring Apocalypse a rebel, to keep him happy, so she could keep living like a person, the way she deserved. Hell, blowing up this training camp and bringing Emma Frost in to Apocalypse would probably keep Adrienne in the good books for the rest of the year.

Gritting her teeth, Adrienne pulled out a disposable weapon and stared at it for a moment. Now for the hardest part. Without dwelling on it any longer, she took the weapon in her left hand and fired it at her right arm. She'd contemplated shooting herself in the left, being right-handed, but she wanted the wound to appear more believable, and it seemed like a wound to her weapon hand would accomplish that.

Shooting herself in the bicep, she choked down the blinding pain she'd just inflicted on herself, tossed the weapon away, and stumbled forward. It was still a long way to the camp.

****

By the time she approached the area she knew was under surveillance by the underground school, Adrienne had lost a fair amount of blood and was stumbling and shaking. She had her hands up to show she was unarmed, other than the laptop case she was carrying. "Is anyone... can someone... is anybody there? Please?" she called out in her most pitiful voice. "Can anyone help? I'm Emma Frost's sister! I have intel for her! She thought I was dead. I thought she was dead! Someone... I learned she was here. I've been walking... so long... Have to get this information to her! Can someone help?"

Tandy was the first to responded after receiving the news that someone had entered their base camp. Tandy made her way to where the woman was at, her crescent moon glowing around her right eye as two light daggers appeared in both of her hands. Coming up to the corner, she stepped out to greet the intruder who was claiming she was Emma's sister. "Stop. Who are you exactly? You claim to be a relative but how do I know that is true? And don't try anything funny..." Lifting her arms to show her light daggers, "...I never miss."

"No funny stuff, I promise," Adrienne answered, putting her her hands up to show she was unarmed, making sure the guard got a good look at the bullet holes in her laptop case. "My powers aren't offensive. Or defensive, actually, now that I think about it," she added, sounding a little confused. She took in the layout of the area she'd been brought to with a practiced eye, keeping her observations discreet. "I... I don't know how to convince you I'm Emma's sister," she carried on, trying to sound sheepish. "I mean, do you have a chem lab on you to do a blood test? Because I don't. We don't have a super secret sister code-word or anything, you know," she pointed out, with a wink, keeping her tone friendly. "I can tell you my name's Adrienne, I'm three years younger than Emma, I'm a psychometrist... I was living in Europe with my husband when Apocalypse took New York so I've been living there ever since. And I thought Emma was dead until about a year ago when I heard she was involved in the resistance. I've been trying to get back to her since then. I suppose I could tell you embarrassing childhood stories about her, if that would help? Please... I stole this from Apocalypse's forces," she added, holding the shot-up laptop case out to Tandy. "It's intel. But it's damaged. That's why... that's why I had to come myself."

The young woman stared at Adrienne Frost for a moment, she saw the trail of blood behind the older woman. She stepped aside for Adrienne to get in front of her. "Move up." Her light daggers disappeared from her hands.

"Uhh, how am I supposed to know where I'm going if you're behind me?" Adrienne inquired curiously.
"And not keep my eye on you?" Tandy raised her eyebrow at the other woman. "Just because you may be Emma's sister doesn't mean I have to trust you. Let's go. Lagging here will only draw more attention than what we really need." Tandy turned her head towards the direction that they were going to head. "And we are wasting time."

"I thought this was a safe zone for people like us," Adrienne murmured with a curious note in her voice, moving ahead. "Whose attention are we going to risk drawing?"

"It is a safe zone. But we haven't survived this long without being suspicious of everyone. Anyone, really." Tandy stopped and looked at the blood. "Can you walk? Or do you need help?"

"I can walk," Adrienne answered. She didn't want the guard dog's help. In fact, she wanted the guard dog to be a total bitch. It would make it easier to kill her later.

****

After being patched up in the makeshift medbay, Adrienne had been left to rest on a cot while the guard dog had gone off to search out the leaders of the camp and let them know about the intel Adrienne desired to share. The guard dog had tasked someone even younger than herself to keep an eye on Adrienne, but that pair of eyes had been easy enough to get rid of: Adrienne had faked going into shock, which sent the monitor running off to get help. Once they were out of sight, Adrienne got to her feet and trotted out of the medbay area, slapping her hand on a wall to track her supposedly ruined laptop case, which had been left in what looked like a makeshift R&D lab, which consisted of an old folding table in an alcove of one of the tunnels, dotted with pieces of ruined electronics.

Laptop case in hand, she used her powers to sniff out the camp's armoury, her precognition allowing her to duck into other tunnels to keep herself out of sight when camp residents would pass by. The armoury was just a cave in the tunnel system where portable cases of weapons had been stacked, each case locked. She supposed the downside to having camps that were so easily movable was that unless you found a new hidey hole that came complete with reinforced blast doors and a security system you could manipulate, there weren't a lot of options for protecting your stuff. The rebels didn't even seem to have the manpower to stock the armoury with a guard round the clock. Which made Adrienne's life a lot easier.

After a quick survey of the armoury's contents, thanks again to her powers giving her the ability to see what was in all the cases without opening them, Adrienne knelt down and pulled the 'damaged' laptop out of its case, opening the bottom of it to pull out the four shaped charge explosive devices it held. She'd just finished placing them around the armoury when she heard footsteps approaching.

Tandy had told the others about the intel that Adrienne had apparently brought with her. She had returned back to the medical bay but Adrienne was nowhere in sight. The blonde walked back out of the room and started to walk down to the armoury.

"What are you doing?"

Without looking up, Adrienne picked up a weapon she'd taken out of a case and loaded and fired it repeatedly at the girl.

Tandy stared at Adrienne before ducking out of the door. But it was too late, the damage had already been done. Tandy held her stomach where two of the three bullets hit her. The other one hit her shoulder. Leaning against the wall, "Shit." She had to warn the others.

Wanting to keep the guard dog in sight lest she try to run off and warn anyone, Adrienne went to the doorway, detonator in one hand and weapon in the other.

Her skin was glowing bright and already she could feel her life force slipping away. She came to another corner and turned and unleashed five of her daggers towards Adrienne. After the daggers left her fingertips Tandy fell back to the ground. Her glowing skin started to fade and her crescent moon around her right eye vanished. Emma. Her lips curved into a smile and she laughed, "What comes around goes around."

Adrienne hadn't been expecting daggers made out of light to come hurling at her and barely had time to throw an arm up to shield her eyes before they landed in her flesh- two in the arm covering her eyes and three in her torso. "Ow! Fuck!" she mumbled vehemently as burn marks appeared where she'd been struck. The sudden pain and drain to her energy level sent her staggering to her knees, dropping the detonator she'd been holding. When she'd caught her breath and blinked away the stars the pain had her seeing, she emptied the clip into the blonde's body angrily, cursing up a storm.

****

It was the sudden change in Matthias’ posture that alerted Emma to the incoming message. Missing her telepathy was a constant ache inside of her, a hole so huge that she had to ignore its existence or fall into it forever, but it had been a price she was willing to pay to keep herself from becoming one of Apocalypse’s leashed dogs. There were enough lesser telepaths around to enable her to maintain virtually instant communication with everyone in the school.

But no words came from Matthias’ mouth as he gazed at Emma, his eyes glazing suddenly, pain and fear and something darker, more primal distorting his features as he looked at Emma.

Emma judged the weight of the slap perfectly, hard enough almost to bruise and fast enough to shock Matthias out of the telepathic link he was in the process of forming. “Don’t,” warned Emma sharply, as soon as she was certain his eyes had refocused on her, “fall down that rabbit hole. Never follow them. Never. Who died?”

“Tandy,” said Matthias, his face twisting with anguish. “She called out for you. There was – she’s at the school. There was someone at the school. Bits and pieces, only. She was dying!” He doubled over suddenly and threw up almost on Emma’s feet, then straightened and wiped his mouth abruptly. Emma has long ago weeded out any assistants who couldn’t handle pressure. “Something about your sister? With dark hair. Someone shot Tandy.”

“My... sister,” said Emma slowly, raising an eyebrow. “That is... unexpected. Although I had heard some rumours... Reports.” Emma shook her head. “Clean yourself up. Rest. Wait for me to get back. I think it’s time for a Frost family reunion.”

****

It didn’t take long for Emma to work out what her sister was doing. One of the few advantages that came from being a prized trophy for Apocalypse and thus, constantly hunted, was that Emma now knew more about covert tactics, guerrilla operations and sabotage than had ever seemed likely as the eldest scion of Boston nobility.

“I know you were never nice to your Barbie dolls,” said Emma, not stepping from the shadows that concealed her from where Adrienne was attempting to improvise a detonator for the small but powerful bomb she was tucking into the darkest recesses of the school, “but blowing up children? Have you really fallen that low?”

The detonator had been damaged when she'd dropped it, but Adrienne had nearly patched it up again when she turned towards Emma's voice with a wicked smirk on her face. "I do what the monsters tell me to," she shrugged. She didn't enlighten her sister as to whether she meant the men that had always been in her life, or the demons in her own head. "Always have, thanks to you, dear sister," she added, trying to conceal the fact that she was in a rather substantial amount of pain, between shooting herself and the damn light daggers. "Besides, it's not about the children. Surely you've figured that out by now."

Emma sighed and took a half-step forward, so she at least partially emerged from the shadows and in to her sister’s view, allowing Adrienne to see the gun that Emma held with long-practised ease. “You always were daddy’s pet, Adrienne, doing what other people told you to do. Have you ever considered living your own life? Doing what you want to do? Making your own moral choices? Or is it easier to let other people do the thinking for you?”

"Here's a thought, dear sister," Adrienne mumbled, smirking at Emma. "You look like shit. If this," she added, gesturing up and down in Emma's direction, "is what living your own life and making your own moral choices gets you, no thanks. I may not look my best right now, but at least that's temporary. You have to look like that all the time, living in this shithole with all these simpering, bleeding heart, weak-ass rebel fuckers. Like this one," she spat out, nudging Tandy's body with her boot.

[Emma]