A few hundred kilometers northeast of aural mountains, Russia.
Mystique POV,
Now that most of our set forth objectives are done it's been a rather hectic six months. I sighed in exhaustion the tension leaving my body as I sat comfortably as a passenger in the quinjet Emma got us.
Now that I think about it ever since Irene Love let her into the deal she had been rather resourceful. It's probably also to clear up our previous debt of helping her escape Shawn's grasp while avoiding both Charles and Eric.
Looking back, we have been so busy laying the groundwork for Frost International and the Hellfire Club before any of this came up. The last half a year more so has been hectic cause of Irene's premonitions.
When half a year ago she told us about another huge chance of a lifetime that would start for us by saving a group of kids from a child soldier institute, it sounded too easy and too good to be true. Considering we've been breaking mutant kids out of Sinister's and the government's labs how hard would it be to break out a group of normal girls right?
In the past decades of our lives, how we missed such a resourceful organization like the Red Room I don't know. It was probably because we never cared to pay attention to such organizations as we had been busy dealing with saving mutants and all.
Honestly, I was surprised when we found SHIELD had records on them and they were also in the dark trying to locate the organization. It seems they both had a run in with each other but Shield wanted to recruit more of its agents for themselves that's for sure considering they had some of the records of this generation of black widows but too bad for them they have moles in the organization.
Getting the information wasn't easy but finding the training facility was harder as they tend to move to a new location after every two generations of agents are trained. Following our set forth plans, I had to break into the organization more than a week ago and help take it down from the inside while gathering all the final records that we had yet to secure in which we were informed of a potential key to successfully securing the deal and that afterward, I would get a sign to act on one of the following nights.
Spending a week observing the kids was rather informative. Back in the day, I have seen slave labor so I don't get easily surprised by humanity's cruelty and all but during this day and age, I hadn't expected to find a group of kids being broken, brainwashed, and being trained to suit an organization's needs.
I had to catch myself from doing anything when I saw their brutal training from forcing a child to shoot people for target practice or the one combat match where the winner had to kill her friend for her to live. I could see the complex emotions through that child's eyes but I couldn't interfere.
I heard the insistent screams of the kids when they went to their so-called physical endurance training at night and had to hold myself reminding myself of what the mission was. I might be a cold ruthless person but seeing this level of cruelty being performed on kids mutants or not, it had crossed my line.
I looked over my shoulder at the nineteen kids who I had just helped to rescue, I couldn't help but notice how most of them were still on guard. Some of them were pretending to sleep while I also caught a few of their eyes wondering if looking for possible exists and escape paths which is probably a subconscious reaction for them by now. Returning these kids to common society and expecting them to forget about their traumatic pasts and live a normal life would be very difficult.
Most of them would probably end up getting picked by big spy organizations like SHIELD if we left them in normal orphanages or eventually ended up as mercenaries. I sighed in exhaustion thinking about all the chaos that would have made leaving a kid with training to kill with normal immature brats who would pick on you the first time they notice you are different. That thought sent shivers down my spine.
What amazes me though is the way my golden goose is taking this situation. Irene Ivanovo, a quiet, intelligent, cold distant obedient girl according to the records. A kid who would take everything you threw at her and struggle to stand without giving up, the best trainee widow of this generation along with Natasha Romanov. I observed her for a bit in the past week cause most of the time I couldn't see her she was busy with other lessons or getting tortured.
When I saw her yesterday limping to her room fully bandaged I almost rushed to blow my cover. After all, can't have the person I came here for just fall over and die as I watch. Lost in thought at that moment I was caught off guard when she turned to meet my gaze making me freeze and almost begin inwardly panicking on thinking she saw through my disguise.
Her cold blue eyes were like mesmerizing jewels revealing the deep hidden fire beneath she had struggled day in and out to hide. The very fire that the instructors made sure to crush in all their trainees and brainwash them to instill absolute loyalty but in that brief instance our eyes met I saw it although that might not be the case for her.
She was tired at the moment with heavy eye bags covering her eyes and was struggling to make it to the dorms. Although this was the case I watched on as she disregarded my presence and continued refusing to show any weakness limping away. That side, no mask of hers she showed to the world I didn't know for how long she had it on but I knew if all this continued she would soon break and end up as one of the most deadly weapons of that hellhole.
When her powers awakened I was right. It seemed that the situation called for her to act immediately considering I had felt a slight noticeable disturbance in the atmosphere wash over me a few minutes before the alarms began blaring.
It seems under all that pressure, her mask broke revealing another side of her. That side that I saw was rather playful, impulsive, sadistic, somewhat irrational, and greatly contradictory to her files but she didn't lose sight of her family when she decided to go berserk for a while which is a plus in my books. If we had to through all this effort just to find out we are recruiting another fucking psychopath like Shaw, what's the guarantee she won't stab us in the back when we put our trust in her or we aren't looking.
As expected, she still ended up flipping out when she found out about her real history. Well, this world really is a messed up place but the look she gave the bastard was bone-chilling. I couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of sympathy toward the guy who was still bound chained and gagged lying humiliated on the cold floor a few meters in front of Irene's makeshift seat but one look at him changed my mind. He fucking deserved it but looking at the situation, he'll probably experience worse. Karma is a bitch.
Although her level of power alone is terrifying enough to make anyone who would think of betraying her trust twice, something tells me she won't be kind if such a situation ever occurs. I continued watching her sleep through the flight peacefully before she unconsciously grabbed hold of the redhead kid who had come to check on her and ignored her obvious protests and struggles just to cuddle up tight with her causing me to chuckle in amusement. If someone saw this sight, they wouldn't think the seemingly defenseless girl would have enough power rivaling or exceeding that of a nuke at a single thought.
I snickered at the memory of her getting flustered when I caught her staring at my boobs. I am so going to have fun teasing her to get more cute reactions.
Mc POV,
I had just woken up from the best four-hour nap of my life to find my face stuffed into someone's beautiful red hair. My mind was slowly rebooting not even registering the fact that I had my hands interlocking on the person's waist holding her still in my grasp. I had felt the urge to panic slowly well up within me when from the corner of my eyes I noticed I was currently in an unfamiliar location but I held myself back on hearing the soft rhythmic breathing of the person between my arms.
Gently nudging her body slightly to my side to prevent the obstruction of my vision, I slowly observed the surroundings to see my sisters, some of them dead asleep strapped safely onto their respective chairs while a few others continued to marvel at the beauty of the earth from such a height.
I observed the cute redhead in my arms for a minute to notice it was Natasha causing me to slightly shift giving her a slightly more comfortable position to lay in my arms. This wasn't weird for us, just a once-in-while occurrence we started in secret ever since our first joined assassination mission. Unconsciously I raised my right hand to begin gently stroking her slightly disheveled hair when I noticed the green lantern ring on my middle finger waking me up completely and jogging all my memories.
I sighed in slight annoyance at my carelessness cause I couldn't believe I slept without putting my guard up. I looked once more at little Natasha, my little murder angel and best friend who would have been the death of millions of men and be known as the world's best sexiest spy mommy in another life wondering how she even got here in the first place before I recalled Im somewhat of a hugger when I'm drunk or a sleep causing me to smile in amusement at how my behaviors followed me along to this life.
You might have had a grief-stricken traumatizing past no matter which universe and end up being kicked down by the world in most of the stories I read but I would ensure you at least live a good life in this one, that I swear. A chuckle from in front snapped me out of thoughts in turn causing me to raise my head and see Mystique staring at us in amusement. Damn, she's hot was my first thought as I stared at her through my unruly bangs slightly obstructing my vision.
I willed my ring to construct a camera molded after the Nikon version levitating it into her arms and pausing to hold Natasha a bit more gently and delicately pausing for a photo after I moved my hair out of my face. A couple of flashes and different pauses later, I was sure the images were sent to my ring's memory bank. I confirmed by displaying a small hologram of the photos over my ring before making them appear on the camera's small screen for Mystique to see leaving me to observe how cute we looked together. All we need to make it better is better clothes, a bath for my troubles, and a real saloon to fix my messed up hair as it was unevenly cut.
I dismissed the holograms and camera looking back at Mystique who was looking at me in slight annoyance causing me to playfully stick my tongue out to her. In retaliation, she used her ability and morphed her appearance to look like a slightly older version of me sticking her tongue out back at me causing me to subconsciously hold Natasha more possesively before I looked away my face flashed cause damn that face was fuckin beautiful. I had to catch myself from raising my ego when I noticed it looked like an older more mature version of me but damn this woman does know how to egg me on. I'm so goddamn predictable and easy to please I laughed self-deprecatively as I turned back to face her wearing a playfully angry expression before mouthing a silent mine to her as I held Natasha possessively causing her to snicker in amusement. We continue our banter and making faces at each other for minutes just enjoying how she vibed with my terrible sense of humor. She's fun to be around.