POV- Sage
When Andrew came to me with footage of the mission from a hidden camera, I was confused. There was nothing to gain from having footage of Rebecca killing innocents, and the footage of Reeva whispering to Rebecca was only partially captured. The only section that was lip-readable was telling her of a promised future of hope, and security for mutant kind.
"Edit it," he said coldly. "I want the footage of Rebecca killing the humans cleaned up and cropped, and the same done for the discussion between her and Reeva. Capture as much of their conversation audio as you can, and take time-lapse photos of the conversation and the murders."
"Can you tell me why?"
"I can't. But I can promise that it's for the good of our kind. With all my heart. By the way, don't get caught by Reeva, and if the triplets see you and ask, say it's for me." I'd seen some footage of the triplets relaxing, training and once kissing in the pool with Andrew, but it seems they were better connected than I first believed.
"Fine." A ringtone came from his pocket and as he checked his phone a bright and vicious smile spread across his features.
"It seems I have a date tonight."
POV- Marcos
The drive to the Guerra mansion now took over an hour, and though Reeva wasn't happy about letting the two of us leave at night, there wasn't much she could do to stop us. 'Well, him at least.' "What's been going on with you lately," I ask, turning down the radio. "You've had a distant look on your face for a few days now."
"Well, the triplets are looking for evidence of something with Sage, and once they do, I'll need to take action."
"Take action how?"
"Would you listen to my orders?" he asked, looking out his passenger window.
"Umm, yeah, I guess? So long as it was reasonable." Complete bafflement is what I felt at that moment, looking across at the tired-looking teenager who worked exhaustingly every day to improve his powers, body, and skills.
"I'll be taking control of the Hellfire Club soon Marcos. Reeva will be killed and Rebecca removed. Lorna knows why but not my plan." 'This is…ambitious.' "John is also struggling with the MU; Sentinels have been sniffing around the HQ and the purifiers are a walking hit squad for mutants. I need allies and the Guerras are well-connected and well-funded."
"You're going to join up with them?!" I shout in growing anger, gripping the wheel so hard it was growing hot.
"No, and don't melt the steering wheel, Marcos. I'm going to eventually absorb them, use their resources and manpower to fund and support mutants in need."
"Charitable drug runners."
"Better than broke families and dead mutant children Marcos."
"It won't work, you have nothing to keep them in line."
"That's what I plan to demonstrate today, Marcos. I'm going to remove or at least cripple one of their biggest competitors. If I can do that…"
"You could do the same to them. Are you sure you want to do this? People have tried evil for a good cause thing before. Lorna's-"
"Magneto wasn't interested in bettering lives, only ruling over them. I want a team of people I can trust to act as my hands. Both of us want to be kings, yet he simply believed people would flock to him."
"And what about you? Why would anyone follow a, no offence, kid?"
He chuckled lightly, "For the same reason they followed kings before. Power. If people are afraid to attack, they are safe. It's as simple as that. I don't need to be liked. "Oderint dum metuant." Looking across at him he turns and his brown eyes dark in the limited light, almost black. "It's a quote from Caligula. Let them hate, as long as they fear." I turn back to the road more than a little concerned about Andy, not that he'd hurt me or my family, but that he was changing rapidly. Ever since his family visited his grandfather, they've been changing, both physically and mentally. More powerful too. The only things he cared about anymore were his chosen family and his training. And if he is planning to take control of the mess my generation and those before us left the world in, all the power to him. 'I almost feel bad for those in his way.'
~~~
POV- Andy
"Marcos and Andy, I'm glad you came so quickly. Andy, I have a niece your age in the-"
"Too young," I interrupt, hoping to dissuade her from yet another attempt to lure me in. "To be honest Ms Guerra, if you weren't so strung up on Marcos, you'd be the perfect bait." A small laugh slipped from her as she swatted my shoulder playfully.
"Andy, you're such a flirt. While I'm disappointed my niece didn't seem to draw your interest, I'm interested in what you talked to me about."
Taking a seat opposite her I relax in my seat watching as Marcos poured himself a glass of whiskey before gulping it, repeating occasionally. "I'm more than happy to remove the insignificant little flea you've asked to be squashed. But I'm bored Carmen. Tell me one of your main competitors and I'll blow up their buildings and tear the wreckage apart." The cartel boss grew tense.
"You would attack a large drug cartel for us?"
"Oh god, no. I would, however, because I'm bored. I could pull down a skyscraper within a few minutes so a building full of drugs and other volatile substances is nothing."
"And if you're shot?"
Marcos sniggered remembering the time in practice I asked Fade and him to fire fully automatic weapons at me, using my telekinetic dispersion to block and redirect gunfire with ease. "They could try," he muttered into his glass, downing another. I take the bottle and the glass from him, constricting him to his sofa gently. Carmen is no longer as sure of herself as before, and the bodyguards that surrounded the room each had their hands on their firearms, with the exception of fish-face, who trapped people in motion too, though that was the extent of his powers.
"Well, Carmen? Who will it be?" My words left no option for refusal, and the shift from Ms Guerra to Carmen was equally off-putting for the young drug lord.
"We will see if you can truly handle a large group then Andrew. In addition to a truck, I need removed that will pass along the highway in a few hours, you can also remove the Reapers to our East. If we take their zone, we will control all the way to the coast as they run almost everything in North and South Carolina. Take out their supplies and ruin their warehouses, and we can talk once you're done.
~~~
The truck was an easy job. All I had to do was rip the front axle off the truck, sending it tipping and crashing down the road, and set off a molecular ignition inside the fuel tank, resulting in a fireball of heat and smoke.
"Time for the actual job," I groaned, my shoulders stiff from the seats. No matter how comfortable a car seat is, there was nothing I felt comfortable sitting in for more than half an hour without a break or wriggling. Marcos drove in silence, except when he called Lorna to tell her what was going on. Reeva had tried to ban cell phones but when the benefits outweighed the risks, she allowed them, though Sage could access and listen in to conversations. To be honest she could access pretty much anything digital-related given enough time.
The complex Carmen wanted destroyed was a collection of factories in a run-down area near the water. 8 buildings made of concrete and steel, protected by armed guards and filled with people making, moving and protecting drug products. I had texted Sage and found the Reapers were fairly clean, meaning they only dealt with guns and drugs rather than people, but they were the selected target, and if Carmen did what I expected her to, they were expecting me.
"Marcos if you want to stay here in the car that's totally fine. Carmen probably told them we were coming."
"Because she's afraid of you becoming too powerful to control," he said with an exasperated sigh. "What makes you think she hasn't told Sentinels?"
Double-checking my gear and the map from Sage, I answer. "Her telling the Reapers that two dangerous mutants are headed their way could provide benefits if they survive, whereas the Sentinels wouldn't give an illegal cartel any benefits or rewards. Carmen won't want to entirely burn the bridge with me in case I live, and the Reapers defending themselves is normal. Sentinels helping protect them is not." Marcos sent a text to Lorna, who, although not happy that Marcos was involved with the Guerra cartel again, was much more accepting since finding out I was the one doing most of the work and that Carmen wasn't doing anything more than verbal flirting.
"I'm coming too, just make sure I make it home, okay?" There are many words I could use to describe Marcos, and cowardly was not one of them. Stupid maybe, but not cowardly. The two of us approached the surrounding buildings, aware that several guns would be pointed at us right now.
"Stay close and nothing will get through," I whisper, and as we enter into the centre of the large cemented street that connected these old factories that now stored the gang's drug supplies for moving as well as weapons. The surroundings were dark. Purposefully so, and there was little that worried me without the army or Sentinel's involvement. A muffled shout sounded and a brilliant array of light burst from every window, door and foot of open space on the buildings' roofs and my telekinetic barrier was suddenly hit with an incredible pressure that without it, would have turned Marcos and me into a slimy paste on the floor. Marcos blasted a few of those with his light beams, birthing screams from the burned men who were cut and partially melted from the intense heat.
As the spray stopped, I chuckled, proud that the barrier a few weeks ago had been able to barely stop a bullet had held up under the strain. "My go." Stretching my power across the front half of the buildings, made of concrete and steel back when they were intended as factories, I feel the ground beneath them. With a heavy groan, I yank my hands upwards, and as if I were conducting a performance, the buildings sprang free from the ground, hurled into the air and against each other. Concrete smashed and crumbled. Cries of agony and shock spilled into the air. Feeling the stores of ammunition, I set off an explosion in the room, the exploding force killing anyone who had survived in the rubble, the searing heat and molten metal stealing their last chance of hope. The last two buildings had watched horrified as the front four had been ripped from the earth and used like toys to bash against one another, and again another spray of bullets came in a desperate attempt at survival. This time, I don't simply drop the bullets, flinging them back towards my attackers. It wasn't particularly accurate, but the force was undeniable, and a few shouts and screams echoed out. The drugs had been placed in the two, more distant buildings that were protected by neighbouring factories and only accessible past the gun storage. Unfortunately, that meant the two buildings had little to defend themselves with, and with a somatic gesture of rubbing hands, the ground floor burst aflame, setting off smaller explosions and loud noises. I then continued spreading fires up the building, and watched as a few desperate souls jumped out of the windows and off the three-story roof, only to be decapitated with a flick of my hand. Ripping the burning buildings as I had the first time I worked for Carmen, I rip it apart separating the structure along a diagonal line, then again horizontally, and again. The falling concrete broke through the floors, and the building was a scorched mess of concrete and bodies. Aware that the building had been full of drugs, I kept up a light barrier similar to the one I used for bullets, but far weaker, designed to keep out the smoke and burnt drugs, or at least minimise it.
"We should go, the cops will be here soon," Marcos says pulling me back to the car, eager to get as far away from here as possible. Again, I quickly stop and take a selfie with the collapsed buildings, proof of completed work, before we go. The job wasn't particularly hard, and I became thankful that I was so strict with myself with training. Without my constant effort, there was no way I could have done that in such a short time from gaining my powers. If I had really pushed myself, I probably could have removed all the buildings in a single explosion or ripped them apart simultaneously, but I wasn't sure I would have the energy to fight afterwards. Increasing the range of my powers wasn't as simple as just adding another target like 1+1, but more like multiplying by a factor. And there was no way I was going into Carmen's den without the strength to crush her should she be foolish enough to refuse.
I didn't send back a photo to Carmen, not wanting her to have even a rough time of expected arrival to plan around. The drive back was spent on my phone, listening to music while Marcos called Lorna and told her what had happened, and he told her my plan for the Guerras, which earnt me a 5-minute lecture on risking myself for minor benefits. 'She'd really gotten into mom mode. Though I'm not sure if it was becoming a mother herself or spending time with Cait that had given her the skill.
We arrived without issues, and the manor was as we left it. 'She hasn't moved to evacuate everyone, which is good news. Nor has she tried to foolishly defend the manor and keep us from here. She's definitely regretting letting us help her out those months ago.'
"Mr Strucker, Mr Diaz," we were greeted at the door, the customary service still present. Carmen was dressed in a shimmering tightly-fitted dress that hugged her figure and emphasised the glimmering green necklace and earrings she wore. 'She dressed up.' Before she had been wearing a pantsuit and now she wore a sensual dress, maybe having taken my earlier flirting as an opportunity to survive and remain in power.
"Carmen, the jobs are done," Marcos called, as eager to leave this place as I was to own it. "The truck and the reapers are a pile of burning wreckage." Marcos still had jobs that required interrogation, or torture depending on your stance on the CIA's questioning methods, but everyone knew the destructive power I brought. Thus, my role in destroying a gang bigger than the Guerra family in such a small amount of time, unhurt and apart from a small amount of smoke that seeped through the barrier along with the air, untouched.
"Excellent. We need to discuss our future plans of action, if we are to take over their territory." The three of us sat in a small room on one of the higher floors, opulent and luxurious, with a traditional styling. "You've proven you don't need us quite clearly, so what do you want from us? From me?"
Marcos who had heard the plan earlier, stepped in hoping to cover my desires as the Inner Circles, a plan which when he explained it to me, I knew would fail. She listened to his words but looked straight past him, her eyes boring into my own. "So as I said, you just need to expand and continue making a profit, though the majority will be coming to us instead."
"Is this what your employer wants?" She said with a small smirk, "Because regardless of power, one should meet face to face with these kinds of deals." She then turned to Marcos, "You've always been a terrible liar Marcos, even when you're mostly telling the truth. So, Andrew, you want us to fund you, is that it?"
I knew she was clever, as any woman in business had to be, illegal or otherwise. "Somewhat. I planned to use you to support the MU originally, but they haven't collapsed yet, so you can keep the money for yourself to secure your hold of North and South Carolina. Once you have a firm grasp of them, I'll remove someone else, and you will consume them, and again and again, until your family stands at the head of organised crime in America. It should go without saying that your family will remain entirely focused on weaponry and drugs, and that you answer to me. Any issues?"
"Why do you need so much money and such long-term support?"
"I will need to fund programs in the future. Buying land, smuggling people, paying people."
"A mutant homeland? Oh Marcos he is far more ambitious than you ever were. Last question, why me?"
"Really, it could have been anyone, but you've been polite and you're smart enough not to try and bite someone that could crush you underfoot. Have fun absorbing the Reapers Carmen." As I stood to leave, she rose and escorted us out, the act seen not just by myself and Marcos, but by the guards and her employees.
"I will send word once we have a hold over their business, or if there's an issue. Do you expect a certain behaviour or..?"
"Pfft, no" I chuckled at her awkward smile, "and you can keep calling me Andrew, I'm not big on formality, obviously," I gesture towards my track pants hoodie and boots. "See you next time Carmen." A few steps from the door I turn, "And don't pull another stunt like you did with the Reapers. It didn't help them, and it won't help you." Her face paled as she nodded, her head shaking vertically like a frantic chicken.
"I cant believe a few months ago I was scared I'd never be able to leave their family again after she helped with Lorna. And now they work for you."
A bright smile split my face as I laughed hopping in the car, "Who said I was releasing you from your debt Eclipse… So, now you're my bitch instead." Marcos let out a groan but he was still more relaxed than on the drive there.
"This was your plan when you joined me in working for them right? From the start? There was almost no benefit for you to join but you did anyway, just to build up the relationship and demonstrate what you could do as you progressed."
Shrugging, I reply, "Something similar at least. I'm just glad I didn't have to kill them."
"You talk about killing far too easily Andy."
"Hypocrite. How many are you up to by now 100- 200? My powers are destructive by nature, and to master them I need to tame them, like a wild dog. Loosen the chain and keep control, rather than try and cage them until I snap and lose control again."
"Are you keeping the Guerras a secret from Reeva?" he asked cautiously, though I'd broken an audio transmitter when I first jumped in.
"Same with my parents if you wouldn't mind. Dad's still a lawyer at heart, which is why he helps out John occasionally, and Cait still has faith in a utopia."
"So, she's living in a pipe dream?"
"Hrmm?"
"Utopias don't exist."
"No, not true utopias, but I'm sure for most mutants a safe, relatively normal environment to live is a utopia."
"Finding one is near impossible and making one will require a tonne of bloodshed," he advised sadly.
"Every civilisation is built on the bones of the fallen and provided for by soil enriched by blood. It's a quote I remember from a video game, but it seems about right. Let's just make sure it's not our bones," I say quietly, leaving the contemplating Diaz to drive as I slept.
'Just the MU and Inner Circle to go.'
~~~
Again, sorry this was a few days late, I've been fighting off a cold