THE VENGEANCE OF EMPLATE

Part II: Semi-Charmed Life

By Mike Rudden

Have you ever been really scared? If you haven’t, let’s set the scene. Seven teenagers stood in the commons of an ancient private school campus. Their two clueless headmasters were looking onward into the darkness of the shadows. Inside those shadows was the monster, a genetic vampire who happened to be related to one of the aforementioned teenagers. Add the rain, falling like lead from above.

Cue lightning.

This is the scene at Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters this evening. Not scared yet? Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time to change that…

“Children, form a defensive wedge coinciding with Emma and meself as the leaders! Now!” yelled the headmaster affectionately referred to as Banshee. “Emma and I make first attacks… you guys back us up!”

“Sean…” sighed Emplate, lumbering his way out of the shadows, “I do believe you overestimate me. I have not supped in weeks. I am weak.” Emplate then collapsed on the ground. Banshee made a reflective action to help him up, but was held back by Emma.

“M… you are the only one here Emplate can’t sup. Please restrain him,” instructed Emma.

“Yes, ma’am,” said Monet St. Croix as she glided towards her brother. “Marius, just take it easy…”

“Never!” yelled Emplate as he stood up and slashed at Monet, all in one leap.

“No!” yelled Nuclear, a.k.a. Alex Roberts, as he saw the event. He blasted Emplate with his own powers, to no avail.

“Young, foolish child! With each bit of energy you shoot at me, I can shoot back. A bit like… this!”

Emplate refocused the energy at Banshee and Emma. The beam was intercepted by the flight path of M, who’s body absorbed the energy.

“Your powers won’t work against me, Marius. You’re sick. You’ve been beaten. Let us get you help!”

“I will not…”

Emplate’s statement was cut off by Emma Frost, headmistress of the school, telepathically taking over the beast’s mind. “I can’t hold him for long, Sean! Get some restraints!”

The War Room. Home of strategic books, tracking computers, and cell rooms. At the moment, it was also the meeting place of Banshee, Emma Frost, M, and their prisoner, Emplate.

“I’ve put him on every tranquilizer we’ve got, Sean. We’ll have to wait until he wakes up to see if they did any good,” spoke Emma.

“They won’t,” said Monet. “It’ll take a lot more than man-made medicine to stop him. He’s hardly even human anymore…”

“Anyways,” said Cassidy, “I just got off the phone with S.H.I.E.L.D. They’re sending some agents to pick up this beast and do what they will with him.”

“Well, there’s nothing more to see here,” said Emma. “Monet, back to the dorms for you.”

M agreed with a sigh, and followed Emma out of the room.

“I’ll call ye if I need any help guarding him,” Sean grumbled to nobody in peticular. “Or I’ll just flamin’ shoot the bugger. Whatever’s more convenient at the time…”

“Where… where are my sisters?” gasped the empty voice from the other side of the metal barricade door. It was immediately followed by heavy breathing.

“As far away from ye as possible,” replied Banshee.

“You know, it’s true what King wrote… ‘Only enemies speak the truth. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty’.”

“Figures the monster reads Stephen King…”

“Or are you surprised that the monster reads at all? I have to do something to waste the time of eternal damnation!”

“The truth, then, what in God’s good world made ye the way ye are?”

“I could ask the same about you, Cassidy, but I’m sure you’ve never let yourself analyze your own soul like that. Few people have, but, trust me, God had nothing to do with anything when it came to me…”

“Are ye really trying to convince me that your life is somehow more gratifying than mine?”

“Well, there’s not much to be said about being the lapdog of Charles Xavier.”

“I’d rather be a flea on that lapdog then be what ye’ve become!”

“You have no idea the burden that I carry! Becoming this monster was one of the most humble things I have done in my life!”

“Enlighten me.”

“Very well,” said Emplate as he relaxed in his cell. “I might as well tell somebody the tale before I die…”

“If you want to know something, just ask,” came from Monet St Croix.

This statement broke the long silence between herself and Emma Frost, as the walked into the campus’ kitchen.

“Excuse me?” inquired her instructor.

“We’re both reasonably powerful telepaths, Emma. I can feel your mind wanting to probe my mind. You want answers.”

“But there is a difference between desires and actions, Monet.”

“Did you ever think of just asking?”

“Asking questions has never gotten that us the far before. Your family has always been a fragile subject,” said Emma, while she pulled a carton of Moose Tracks icecream from the freezer. She sat down at the table with two spoons.

“I think I need to talk,” said Monet, sitting next to Emma.

“Then talk.”

“Marius… was always an obnoxious child. Obnoxious, self-involved, bratty, even worse that me, if you can imagine. To everyone outside our family, we were all spoiled brats. We were the four children born to the cousin of a Monocoan prince and his African wife. We were stereotyped from the start, but Marius loved being stereotyped.”

“You see, Mere was involved in… suspicious things. Call it the occult, call it voodoo, call it whatever you wish. To Mere, it was her… and our… heritage. That’s why Gateway got involved with us… he became our mentor. Since Pere was never around, he became a father figure. He and Mere taught us all kinds of things, but Marius took it too far.”

“Gateway and Mere both saw it coming – you can’t teach four children the occult and expect them to use it wisely. They saw it coming from the start. They saw him coming…”

“Who’s ‘him’?” asked Sean.

“He goes by several names… the Prince of Darkness, Lucifer, Satan, the Devil, Nosferatu… but he called himself Satannish. He tempted each of us separately, behind the backs of Mere and Pere, he came to us. First he tried to tempt the twins – he could never break through to Claudette, and Monet protected Nicolette. That’s the way things were… Monet protected the twins, I protected Monet, but who is there to protect me?”

“Nobody… there never was. Gateway tried to help me, but it was far too late. It was done. I had become Satannish’s personal servant… his counterpart on Earth. His successor as the ruler of Hell, or so I believed…”

“But why did ye do it?!”

“I did it to save them. If he didn’t take me, he would have taken one of my sisters…”

“He did it for power. When Satannish embraced him, Marius gained incredible power from the occult. Not the least of them being the ability – no, the need – to feast of the genetic stuff of mutants… and then it was done.” Tears started to fall from Monet’s eyes.

“What happened then?” asked Emma, completely involved in the story.

“Well, Pere disowned him… banished him from the house… called him a disgrace, but Pere was the real disgrace. We all knew if Pere had been there, like he should have been, Marius wouldn’t have needed Satannish. A lot of things would have been different if Pere had been there… for all of us…”

“Marius was furious! He wanted to get back at Pere, so that’s when he tempted me to join him. He came to the house one day, and demanded that I join him as a demon. Naturally, I laughed in his face. I knew better than to follow in his footsteps.” Monet’s face bowed down in silence for a few moments. “And then he turned me into Penance… I’m still confused why he did it. He always tried to protect me when we were children. Maybe this was his way of protecting me… from myself?”

“And then he kidnapped me… brought me to his dimension. Then, as I was told, the twins took my place as Monet. Pere thought that the twins were kidnapped, and that’s all, but Mere… and Gateway… knew the truth…”

“Mere was furious… not at the twins, not at me – even though she had every right to be – but at Satannish. One night, she and Gateway called him out. They were to have some kind of… battle. Many have tried to extinguish Satannish before, none have succeeded. I didn’t know who to pray for… Satannish or Mere. But, then again, what good were my prayers anymore?”

“Mere demanded her son and daughter be turned back, but Satannish offered her a deal. He would turn Monet and myself back if…” it sounded as if Emplate started to cry. It was one sound Banshee never thought he would hear in all his life. “…if she would take my place…”

“She accepted, knowing what she was getting into, but I was arrogant. I wouldn’t let her do it. So, Satannish said if she wouldn’t become his servant, she would perish… and she did…” Emplate’s story ceased for a few moments, while his heavy breathing took over.

“Don’t be tryin’ to make me feel sympathy for ye. It won’t be happening.”

“Would you shut up and show some compassion for once?! She died because of me! She died trying to protect me, and she died because of my arrogance!”

“Don’t be talkin’ to me about death. I know all about the guilt of a loved one’s death…” said Banshee, feeling remorse for his comment. “Go on…”

“It was that night that I took the name ‘Emplate’. I couldn’t stand being called a St. Croix anymore. The next day was the first time I supped on Monet. I almost think I did it to punish myself…”

“Of course, Pere tried not to think about it. He became depressed, even a bit eccentric… tried to ignore the fact that Mere, the twins, or I ever existed. After all, he still had Monet, or so he thought. Lord only knows what happened to him after she began going into catatonic stupors…”

“I think I know the rest of the story. The twins version of Monet was kidnapped by the Phalanx, saved by yuirs truly, became part of Generation X, who was attacked by ye. Gateway, feeling a combination of guilt over the Hellions’ deaths and the death of yuir mother, brought the Monet version of Penance to us…”

“Then, after several more foiled attempts of attacking us and trying to regain yuir sisters, ye find yuirself here, telling me, of all people, yuir life story. Any final comments?”

“Just one… if you’re going to put a power dampener on somebody, make sure it dampens all of their powers!” cried Emplate, as he teleported out of his cell. He attacked Banshee with an occult spell, knocking him on his back. He was ready to sup on Sean, but was interrupted by a very familiar howl.

“EMPLATE!”

“What the bloody…?!” shrieked Banshee.

“EMPLATE, IT IS TIME!” repeated the voice. At that request, Emplate was involuntarily teleported out of the room.

Banshee scrambled over to the intercom. “Attention, everyone! All of ye suit up and meet in the main hall! Immediately!”

“And he just… disappeared?” asked Emma. Once everybody was gathered in the main hall, she had taken it upon herself to interrogate Sean upon the events of minutes past.

“It was as if somebody had taken over his own teleportation powers.”

“Do you have any idea where Emplate was taken?” asked Monet.

“No, I…” At that moment, a flash of lightning struck the yard in front of the main hall. Startled, Jubilee looked out the window.

“Whoa… I think you guys should see this!”

The seven teenagers followed Banshee and Emma out the door and onto the yard. It was a very similar scene to the beginning of the evening. The rain, falling like lead from above. The adults looked cluelessly onward as the teenagers followed them. The monster, crucified on a large, wooden ‘X’, and the portly, ten-foot-tall demon standing next to him.

“Mutants, I am Satannish! Welcome to you final fate!” cried the demon, the giant mouth on his stomach giggling with every word.

“What’s he doin’ here?!” gasped Husk.

“He’s here… to kill me,” replied Emplate, his body hanging limply from the ‘X’.

Scared yet?

NEXT ISSUE: The conclusion to The Vengeance Of Emplate! With Satannish ready to do Emplate in, will Generation X try to save the beast, or let his fate come upon him? Either way, the St. Croix family will never be the same again!