IRRATIONAL CHOICES

Part IV: True Colors

By Brent Lambert

The X-Factor Initiative would change the face of the globe. Ch’Vayre was sure of it. It would be the precursor to a mutant dominated Earth. Everything was falling into place. As he sat at his desk, the time traveling mutant was signing some last minute documents that would solidify the X-Factor Initiative. The Hellfire Club, Black Womb, The Brotherhood, and The Hounds were all ingredients into the pot.

If only the High Lord was truly still alive, it would not have taken Ch’Vayre so long to get his plans into motion. When he was a Prelate in his own time, there was never a moment Ch’Vayre was in doubt of his abilities. Something that this day and age seemed to do was constantly test the strong.

[Only the strong survive. Isn’t that what he always said?]

The voice had caught the former Prelate off-guard. He looked around frantically. Whoever had spoken to him was capable of getting the past the psychic defenses set up by Durklan. There shouldn’t be too many telepaths capable of such a feat. Ch’Vayre ran the options through his mind.

High on the list of candidates was the man that Apocalypse might have one day loved as a son and had as the greatest of all Prelates. Nathaniel Essex had only recently popped up on the grid again and the word was spreading. He was playing for keeps.

Showing that he had picked up on the Prelate’s thoughts, Sinister said, [Yes, but it was a love too grave for the rest of the world to bear]

[What do you want Essex?]

An eerie laugh echoed in Ch’Vayre’s head. [It’s not about what I want. It’s about what I know]

Ch’Vayre leaned back in his chair and thoughtfully massaged his chin. The knowledge of a man like Sinister was nothing to be scoffed at. He was once the High Lord’s right hand and his only truly capable rival. Still, Sinister could not be trusted. Whatever he did, it was always for his own personal gain and agenda. After all his hard work, Ch’Vayre refused to be reduced to a chess piece. He would prove himself more than capable of going blow to blow with Sinister.

[So Prelate, do you want to see how far the rabbit hole goes?]

[Nothing you can say isn’t probably already known to me]

[Your arrogance is amusing, but you know nothing]

Ch’Vayre reused to be belittled in this conversation. He knew that either he maintained an equal footing or he would gain nothing from this exchange. [I know that I am the ally of a very powerful group of people]

[You are not their ally. You are their tool!]

That statement caught Ch’Vayre off-guard. Was Sinister implying that he knew of Durklan? Was he just trying to throw out bait? Sinister was a master manipulator and skilled in Victorian rhetoric. Ch’Vayre would have to be very careful in what he said next.

[I am only a tool because I chose to be]

[You have no choice. Durklan and its master will do to you what they will]

Sinister had showed one of his cards, but Ch’Vayre took no solace in it because he didn’t know how to interpret the move. The statement could be just more bait for Ch’Vayre, but it could be a sign of impatience on Sinister’s part. Maybe he was tired of word games and wanted to cut straight to the point. There was no way to be sure though, so Ch’Vayre would continue to play a cautious game.

[You presume too much in regards to my free will]

[Ch’Vayre, believe me when I say that I never presume. I make it my busy to know these things. Durklan has you in the midst of X-Factor and they want you to orchestrate the deaths of everyone in the organization. What you do not know is that they intend to destroy you in the process]

How much truth could there be in what Sinister was saying? He wouldn’t put it past Durklan to destroy him, but how could Essex possibly know that? The geneticist had been dead for some time.

[Like I said, I make it my business to know these things. They send revengeful mutants upon you and if that fails they hope you succeed in killing one person. The death of Valerie Cooper will assure your destruction]

Ch’Vayre could no longer pretend his curiosity was not piqued. [Tell me more]

[They hope for the death of Cooper because they know just as I do that you are her direct descendant]

The revelation hit the 40th century mutant like a brick. If what Sinister was saying was true, then Durklan had indeed played him. Admitting his own foolishness, Ch’Vayre said, [What do you want to do about the situation?]

[I will let you know when the time comes. First survive those you have wronged]The office door flung open and an ebony haired beauty entered with two exotic assassins behind her. Ch’Vayre immediately recognized the three entities as Ms. Witch, Vargas, and Echo. Sinister was right. Revenge had indeed come for him. Rage was plastered on both Elena and Vargas’ faces. It was obvious what had occurred.

“We know everything Director Nero and we want our pound of flesh,” Elena said as she lifted a hand and Ch’Vayre was telekinetically flung and held against the nearest wall.

Knowing finally that Durklan had truly played him, Ch’Vayre said, “Active Omega sequence 22.”

Alarms began to blare down the halls and the Prelate smiled, “Your friends should be coming anytime now.”

Elena clicked her high heels across the marble floor and pressed her palm into Ch’Vayre’s face as she darkly said, “It won’t matter. I’ll be done with you before they arrive.”

As her hand began to glow purple, Ch’Vayre screamed.

The previous night (Undisclosed Location)

Forge sat on the air conditioning unit at the warehouse’s rooftop. The night was cool so he was wearing a brown jacket. It was a bit tattered, but it had kept him warm so he saw no point in discarding it. Besides, it wasn’t like he was meeting with The President. It was just an old friend.

Exhaling a false smoke, Forge didn’t even look behind him as he said, “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to know that you were late,” Thomas Fireheart, known to the superhuman community as Puma, said as he stepped out of the shadows.

Forge stood to his feet and turned around. He shook his friend’s hand and asked, “You wanted to make sure I was alone.”

Puma nodded. “Don’t take it the wrong way. I trust you, but the people you work for—”

“Understood. So what information do you have for me?”

Puma gave a weak laugh with a feral tone behind it. He reached into a chest pocket and pulled out a CD. Handing it to Forge, he said, “Keep this on you at all times. Don’t lose it. It’s all the evidence I’ve gathered on Durklan.”

Taking the disk, Forge slid it into a compartment that was in his bionic leg and asked, “Does this have Lorna’s location on it?”

Fireheart handed Forge a piece of paper. The shaman looked at it for just a moment as he worked out the coordinates in his head. Once had figured it out, Forge said, “That puts her in the Gobi Desert!”

“Guess you better find a plane old friend.”

“Thank you Thomas. I would not have been able to do this without you,” Forge said.

“Thank me by not dying and taking these sons of bitches down,” Puma replied as he gave Forge a firm handshake born in determination and friendship.

“I have to get back to the compound before they notice, but we’ll be in touch,” Forge said.

Puma nodded and went into the shadows.

Today (X-Factor Compound)

Forge was seated at the top of the rectangular table where he was having a simple breakfast with Red Lotus, Ruby Claw, and Shard (who wasn’t capable of eating). Taking a knife to his pancakes, he said, “Puma was able to give me the information we need to take down whoever was behind Regalo del Ferro and Polaris’ kidnapping. There’s just one catch to all of it.”

“No way is Cooper going to give us authorization for a rescue mission,” Shard said. “At least not before she thoroughly investigates your evidence.”

“Evidence we can’t afford to have tainted or discredited and until I can be sure, I have to assume that Cooper is compromised,” Forge replied.

Red Lotus took a deep breath and said, “So we gotta go above our superiors on this one. Unauthorized mission.”Ruby Claw nodded. “If we want to save our friend we have to go above the law.”

It was then that the alarms began to blare and Forge said, “That’s Nero’s signal! Move it people!”

The gathered mutants quickly made their way down the long hall, taking a flight of stairs downward, turning right down another hall, and passing through revolving security doors to Nero’s office. What they saw frightened all of them. In the middle of the hallway was a man pinned against the wall, who was most definitely not Nero, being suspended by Ms. Witch and a sword pointed at his throat by Vargas. Forge quickly yelled out, “What the hell are you two doing?”

“Saving you from treachery!” Vargas replied. “This Nero has been lying to all of us!”

All of X-Factor looked at each other bewildered and Red Lotus choked out, “Man, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that guy’s not even black. How could he be Nero?”

Elena glared wickedly at Red Lotus and impatiently said, “Do we have to spell out everything? Nero is a fraud. He’s been in a disguise this entire time. Tell them your real history, Prelate of Apocalypse!”

That was another shocker to the X-Factor members, but despite that shock Forge knew something had to be done about this situation before humans with guns decided to get involved. Things could get ugly then and the last thing Forge needed for his team to be involved in another bloodbath. So calmly he said to Vargas and Elena, “Put him down. We can sort this out, but just out and out killing the guy is only going to make matters worse. It’s obvious we have a lot to talk about.”

“There is nothing left to talk about,” Vargas raged. “This man is responsible for the death of my mother. He must die!”

Vargas pulled back his sword to swing and Forge immediately threw a tiny disc into the air that landed on The Spaniard’s cloak. It sent a shockwave through his nervous system that would knock him out cold, but leave him unharmed. Of course, Forge had no estimation of Elena’s mental condition. When Vargas dropped to the floor like a bag of concrete, Elena looked at her former teammates with a devil’s rage they had never before witnessed from her.

“You attack us! You attack us! We were your friends and yet you defend this scum. You will die!”

Elena let loose a bolt of purple energy when a dark voice told her. Don’t kill them. Not yet.

Ms. Witch did as she was told and changed the spell in mid-flight. It struck Forge in the chest and sent him flying into the arms of Red Lotus. Fortunately that did happen because otherwise Forge would have had a hard time getting to his feet. Elena’s spell had completely disintegrated Forge’s bionic parts. Seeing the damage she had wrought, Elena said, “This isn’t over.”

The two lovers vanished in a flash of blue light and Ch’Vayre slumped to the ground just as the human soldiers had begun to arrive. Shard looked at the injured Forge and asked, “How could you attack Vargas? He was our friend?”

“He’s just lost his limbs and you’re worried about him shocking Vargas?” Red Lotus said in disbelief. “Let’s get some perspective here.”

“This wouldn’t have gotten out of hand if we had just talked to them,” Shard answered angered at Forge’s rashness. She expected better from the man.

“It’s gone,” Forge whispered, ignoring his current state. “All gone.”

“What are you talking about Forge?” Ruby Claw asked, ignoring the ongoing disagreement between Lotus and Shard.

“The disc that Puma gave me. It’s gone. All the information we had on Durklan,” Forge said.

By this time, Ch’Vayre was standing to his feet and said, “I really must thank all of you. You’ve just freed me from some unnecessary responsibilities.”

“Freeze!” the soldiers said simultaneously as they pointed their guns at Ch’Vayre’s back.

Wanting to show that Elena and Vargas had been right, Shard asked, “Who are you? Are you Nero?”

Ch’Vayre shrugged. “Just a disguise. One of many secrets you don’t know about. You’ve all involved yourself in a very intricate game.”

Forge was able to stand by putting his arm across Red Lotus’ neck for balance. He brow furrowed as he took in what Ch’Vayre had said. Some of those secrets could have been revealed if he hadn’t of acted so out of turn. He was afraid of another Coney Island and had irrationally attacked a friend and teammate. What had he done?

Somberly, Forge ordered, “Take him into custody. We’ll be around to question him later and someone contact Cooper. We need to talk to her immediately.”

Red Lotus whispered to Forge, “So guess that puts a damper on the rescue mission?”

“Only temporarily,” Forge said. “I need time to do repairs.”

“I only hope that Lorna can continue to hold out until we come,” Ruby Claw said.

The cell was small, tight, white, and well padded. It was almost a bit too lighted, enough to make Lorna have a hard time sleeping. On top of that, there wasn’t any kind of real bed. Only a part of the cell that was slightly elevated to resemble one. Lorna knew she could have worse accommodations, but she wasn’t in the mood to be grateful for anything.

Lorna was laid across the ‘bed” and at her cell door were two people making a wild claim. They had suggested they were her long lost parents. When they first told her that, she screamed at them until they left. Now she was tired of screaming and just tried not to listen.

Susan and Jacob Dane were pleading with their daughter to at least conceive of the idea of them being her parents. So far their efforts had been completely in vain. They seemed only to push their daughter away from them more.

“Sugar listen. We love you. We just want you to know the truth,” Susan said.

Lorna finally stood to her feet and came to the door. She looked viciously through the eye slit and exclaimed, “If you were really my parents I wouldn’t be in here. If you were really my parents I wouldn’t be in a straight jacket! If you were really my goddamn parents you would have came back years ago!”

“Honey if you would just let us explain. We didn’t come back for a reason—

“Play your sickass mind games with someone else! I don’t know a lot about my parents, but I know they couldn’t have been as twisted as you two!” Lorna yelled in frustration because there was this nagging feeling in her gut saying they were telling the truth. She couldn’t accept that. Polaris couldn’t expect having parents like some of her friends. She didn’t want to have to look someone like Mystique in the eye the way Kurt and Rogue had to.

Susan was about to plead some more, but Jacob put a tender hand on her shoulder to stop her. Carefully, he said, “What can we do to prove to you we’re your real parents?”

Lorna thought about that. She didn’t want them anywhere near her, but this could be her one opportunity for escape. So she answered him, “You two come in here by yourselves, get me out of this jacket, and then I might consider listening.”

Jacob looked to his wife and was about to shake his head, but his wife’s teary eyes broke him. “Okay. We’ll do it your way honey.”

Polaris smiled. Whoever was paying these saps had to be loaded for them to act their parts this hard. Lorna knew a ruse from a mile away. Her emotions were only a minor bug to be smashed into the windshield. Her so-called “parents” were fakes and she was going to make them pay for even attempting to make such a claim.

NEXT ISSUE: Ch’Vayre has some explaining to do.