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- BANSHEE
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- EMMA FROST
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- JUBILEE
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- CHAMBER
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- HUSK
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- M
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- SKIN
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- BLINK
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- NUCLEAR
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- PENANCE
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- EMPLATE
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- SATANNISH
THE VENGEANCE OF EMPLATE
Part III: Cracked Rear View
By Mike Rudden
Perhaps for the first time in his life, the being known as Emplate knew the true meaning of fear.
Fear was a cold, dry feeling in his throat. A deep, hollow emptiness in his chest. The thought that it may be it… it may be the end, and he could do nothing about it. He would have no hero on this day. Then another thought rose… when would there be an end to the end? Would there be any salvation? Oh, how he hated the word ‘death’…
“So, Saint Croix, are you ready? You’ve certainly prepared for this moment. You’ve been preparing yourself for this day every time you betrayed my rule!” yelled Satannish. At this point in Marius St. Croix’s existence, Satannish marks the end. Ironically, he also marked the beginning of Emplate’s existence.
“Fer some poor excuse for an overweight professional wrestler, you sure do talk enough, Satan-Itch!” yelled the over-confident and often obnoxious young girl known as Jubilee, taking a stance for any battle that may take place.
“Your significance in this omniverse is so minor, mortal, that you would die of shame if you could ever comprehend it,” replied Satannish.
“I’ll give ya something ta comprehend…”
“Jubilee, let’s play it smart,” broke in Paige Guthrie, also known as Husk, “you’re not going to beat him by yourself.”
“Who says we’re going to beat him at all?” inquired Monet St. Croix, who stayed behind the group, reluctant to face Emplate or Satannish.
“C’mon, Monet, kick it into gear! We’ve gotta save your brother!” came from Clarice ‘Blink’ Ferguson, the newest student on campus.
“My brother died long ago. I care nothing for this beast.”
“However demented he is, he is still your brother, and family is precious!” coaxed Blink.
“This is not up for debate, lads. Ye will do what we tell ye,” instructed their headmaster, Banshee. “…And what would that be, Emma?”
“Um…” Emma Frost had no answer. Emplate had been a thorn in her side since day one with Gen X. But hadn’t she, herself, once been a thorn in someone’s side? Hadn’t she once been in need of a hero? “I think we all know what the only humane thing is.”
“What does the humane thing have to do with anything?” inquired Emplate, gasping for air even more heavily than before. “Nobody here is human…”
“The only thing displacing ye from humanity is an attitude like that, Emplate,” Banshee commanded. “Students, defend him at all costs, but death.”
“Way ahead of ya, senior,” said Angelo Espinosa, affectionately referred to as Skin, who had already snuck behind Satannish and was attempting to untie Emplate from his crucifix. Without a word, Satannish gestured at Skin, forcing him to the ground. “Que?!”
“Quite an attitude, this one has. A rebellious warrior, you are. You may be useful…” said Satannish, as he approached Skin. “You don’t need to be here… you never needed them…”
“Jono! Blast him or something!” yelled Jubilee, as she saw Skin’s face go featureless.
{Wha..?}
“I got yer back, Ange!” flew in Alex ‘Nuclear’ Roberts, in his green ‘atomic’ form, blasting at Satannish. Although it was only a minor annoyance, the demon was distracted long enough for Skin to break his hold.
“Students, made a defensive wedge around Emplate… just get between him and Satannish!” instructed Emma.
And from there, a battle waged forward. The handful of misfortuned teenagers tried their best to battle the ages-old demon known as Satannish. The demon, however, didn’t flinch, and was humored by watching the children work their hardest.
“Hey, hayseed… c’mere!” whispered Jubilee to Husk. “I’ll distract the walking mountain over there, while you sneak behind him and untie Snaggletooth. Got it?”
“You got it,” agreed Paige, shucking her skin into a rock hard form.
“Yo, Satan-Itch! They may train you hard in H-E-double hockey sticks, but lemme show you how they train us in South Central!” yelled Jubilee as she barraged Satannish with her pyrotechnics.
“Annoying child. Your spirit is wild, but you heart is deep. This will be your downfall.”
“What?” asked Jubilee, pausing her attack to contemplate the message. Satannish then threw his arms into the air, summoning an energy ball, which he flung at Jubilee.
“Jubilee! Get outta there!” yelled Clarice, teleporting Jubilee out of the ball’s path.
“You children may think you’re intelligent, but I am the one who can see into realms unseen!” yelled Satannish as he spied Husk climbing Emplate’s crucifix.
“Don’t bother trying to save me, girl…” gasped Emplate.
“SHUT UP! I am so exasperated from hearing your coarse wines, St. Croix!” yelled Satannish as he pointed at Emplate, causing his mouth to tighten together. He then gestured at Husk, and a spike rose from the ground. Paige dodged the spike, but couldn’t reach out of the way enough. The spike cut her skin, forcing her to husk again.
“No!” yelled Angelo. This wasn’t the first time this had happened. “She wasn’t ready to husk again… it was too soon! She’ll go into shock! I’ll get her to the infirmary.” Skin then took the fallen hero back to the campus.
“My God…” gasped Alex. “Monet… did you see that? Monet?” He looked behind himself, but M was nowhere to be found. “Monet?!”
Interlude
He clicked on his lamp and set his keys on the coffee table. He dared not turn on his television, but instead picked up his newspaper to read of the day’s events. He took out a cigarette from his pack, and struck a match from his matchbox. He continued reading the paper’s headlines.
“Woman raped and murdered in California… magnetic power outage in Salem Center… kidnapped teen still unfound…” Stevens spoke out loud. Then he added, “What a disgusting world. There’s money to be made.”
With that thought, he stood up and walked over to his closet. He opened the door and pushed some clothes out of the way, revealing a black costume. His black costume.
“Money to be made for… the Martyr!”
“Monet?” Alex Roberts asked, giving a light tap on Monet St. Croix’s door. “Monet, I know you can hear me. With all of your enhanced senses, I bet you could hear birds chirping in China. Look, I know that you’ve been through a lot, and that you’re going through a lot more now. I also know you’re probably thinking how unfair it is, that when you really need somebody to talk to, you’re stuck with me, little more than a total stranger. I also know how strong you are, Monet, and…”
Alex was interrupted by the creaking of the door across the hall. The door that belonged to the St. Croix twins, who were, unfortunately, assumed in the body of Penance. Alex paced over to the door, and opened it, revealing Monet and Penance sitting on the bed, facing each other. Monet was looking down, crying, while Penance was trying their best to comfort her without touching her.
“Monet… you did hear me, right?”
“Yeah… yeah, every word.”
“Then let me finish. You are so strong, Monet, stronger than anybody I know. I know your family has been through a lot, but now you and your sisters have a chance. You have a chance, if you at least try, to make things better for yourselves and your brother, but only if you’re willing to be that strong.”
A long pause.
“Alex?” asked M.
“Yeah?” replied Nuke.
“I think I’ll need your help.”
Blink was trying to be a hero.
She was trying to be the hero she also wanted to be; the hero that was torn away when she was presumed dead over a year ago. Now in battle with Satannish, fiercely teleporting up and around as a distraction, she’s afraid of failing at that task, but it’s okay for a hero to be afraid, right?
While Blink was forming the distraction, Chamber, Jubilee, and Banshee were supplying the firepower, whilst Emma was trying to figure out a way to break in Satannish’s mind.
“Blink,” Emma started planning their next formation, “four of our students are gone. I need you to…”
“THIS ENDS NOW!” interrupted Satannish. He gestured both hands outward, and all five heroes fell to the ground. “I have grown tired of your futile attempts to regain the soul of this pathetic creation. Fighting for that which is no longer available is foolish.”
As Satannish was getting ready to teleport himself and Emplate away, two more heroes entered the scene. Duel energy blasts whirled past the demon’s head. One of them was supplied by Nuclear, while the other was a spell performed by M.
“Satannish!” yelled Monet, fiercely. “You may have overtaken my teammates, but you have yet to deal with me, and I’m the one you want, aren’t I?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, child. You would have made a pathetic wraith even if you had accepted.”
“And you are to kill Emplate simply because he demeans you? I thought you were an opportunist!”
“Of course I am! I take advantage of everything.”
“Then why simply dispose of your wraith instead…” Monet looked straight into the beast’s eyes, “…instead of trying to replace him?”
“Do you have some kind of proposition for me, child?”
“Let me take his place.”
“You assume that you are an intelligent person, but you are not,” smiled Satannish. “Is this not the same way your mother died?”
“You leave her out of this! This is between the three of us.”
The two were locked in a staring contest.
“Very well. You truly wish to damn your life, so be it. I see foolishness runs heavily in the St. Croix family.”
“Fine,” replied Monet.
“Fine,” echoed Satannish. A long pause of staring. Nuclear looked on in awe.
“So let’s get on with it,” continued Monet. Another long pause. Satannish then burst out in laughter.
“You are bullheaded, girl! Courageous, you pretend to be, but you have too many emotions, which you choose not to share, to bound inside at once.”
“Shut up and stop pretending to know everybody! You know nothing!”
“And are you, a mortal girl who’s not even sure which body she’s in, to tell me, an ages-old demi-god, what I know? One would call that redundant.”
“I’ll tell you what I know. I know that the creature… that the person you’re trying to destroy is my brother. He’s done a lot of bad things to a lot of people, but that doesn’t give you the right to kill him! I mean, I should be the one to want him dead more than anybody… but I…”
“You what? Forgive him?” asked Satannish.
“Well, it’s not exactly…” stuttered Monet.
“Say it,” replied the demon, sternly. “Say that you forgive him for all that he’s done to you, your family and your friends, and I’ll let him go.”
“But, I…”
“Forgive him, or he dies.”
“I can’t…” weeped Monet, weakly.
“Then it’s finished.”
“No! Wait!” interrupted M. “I may not forgive him, but I forgive his intentions. He was looking out for me, and I forgive him for that. He thinks he was responsible for my mother’s death, and I forgive for that. I may even be able to forgive him for turning me into Penance, but I can’t forgive him for disowning my family. For giving up on his chance at humanity. For giving up on himself.”
“He is no longer human. He is no longer your brother… and in a few moments, he will no longer exist.”
“But you never gave him a chance! You stole his humanity… you stole his family from him… it was you! He never had a choice!”
Satannish took a moment to consider. In his concentration, the other members of Generation X slowly began to awaken.
“Let if be known that I don’t agree with you, mortal. Let it also be known that I could care less about your ‘feelings’ or your ‘opinions’. You are correct in saying that I was unfair, but I don’t see what can be done about it now.”
“You very well know what can be done,” replied Alex, standing next to Monet.
“You want to add something to this conversation, boy?”
“Yes, I do. You can turn him back. You can turn him back to Marius, then he’d be out of your way, and things would become right again.”
“Would they, Alex?” asked Monet. “Do you really think that would make things okay?”
“The boy is right. Emplate, awaken.” He did. “A request has been made for your soul. Given the evidence, I cannot withhold it any longer. Let it be known that it will always truly belong to me, and I am only returning to your former state because you were serve more use to me as such.”
“I accept with the most grief and humili-”
“Shut up.” He did. With a thought, a blinding flash of white light spread across the campus, and everybody fell unconscious.
Monet and Marius St. Croix were the first to awaken.
“Marius, you’re… you!”
“Yes, apparently I am,” came from a voice with a heavy accent. A being emerged from the shadows. A being in the form of a muscular African boy, sporting long dreadlocks and torn, soiled clothes. The being started to form a teleportational portal.
“No, Marius! Don’t go! We need to talk, contact Pere, see the twins! Stay with us… we can help you.”
“No, Monet. I’ve done a lot of bad things in my life. Things… that I can’t live with. I need to help myself before I take help from others.” He started to walk through the portal, just as the others started to awaken.
“But Marius, things are supposed to get better now… we’re a family again!”
All Marius could do is wave, on this, what was supposed to be his final day, to his only hero. His sister. “Frein ton chambre. Et… je ce desole.” Marius teleported away.
Alex, holding his temples, walked up to M, who was weeping uncontrollably. “Monet… what’d he say?”
“He said, ‘Check your room. And… I’m sorry’.”
Monet flew practically light speed to her room, to see what Marius was talking about. She stopped only to let Alex and the rest of the class catch up. In the East, past the Mad River and the Berkshire Mountains, the sun began to rise.
The team, in double file order, with Monet and Alex leading, filed up the hallway of the girls’ dorm, and Monet opened her door. There, laying in her bed, sound asleep, were two girls. Twins, Nicolette and Claudette St. Croix. Crying, this time with tears of joy, Monet ran over to them, woke them, and gave them both a hug.
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