[Sama in the MU] Part 15
Added 2025-03-30 04:09:05 +0000 UTCSeveral days prior...
I walked directly over the back of the sofa the Blob and Avalanche were sitting on. They, Pyro, and the Toad all looked over sharply, tensed up automatically, and cursed as I sat down on the heavy television, which promptly shorted out with a flare of voltage from me.
“What do you think you are doing here, lady?” the Blob asked, his invulnerability to harm giving him a natural sense of fearlessness.
“Mystique and Destiny are both dead already,” I told them kindly, and they all stiffened. “That leaves the four of you unemployed and between jobs. I am wondering if you are open to employment.”
They gawped at me, turning to look around, and finding the house oddly silent. Notably, Mystique, who had been in the kitchen, was not responding.
“You... you’re Dynamo, you head up the Champions, right?” Toad suddenly blurted out, licking his lips nervously.
“That’s right. And no, none of you are a threat to me. You can’t run fast enough to get away, and I can fry your brains in seconds. Mr. Dukes, if you get up from that chair, I’m going to send a thousand amps up your nose, whose effects I leave to your imagination.”
He slowly settled back into the sofa. He didn’t look happy, but he wasn’t stupid.
Avalanche looked around, especially at the uneasy Pyro. I turned my eyes that way before the Greek could speak. “It’s been observed numerous times, but I am immune to fire, Mr. Allerdyce. I have sat in the sun’s photosphere, which has a temperature of approximately one million degrees. You are fundamentally harmless to me. Sit back and relax. I am not in danger from any of you, you are all no threat to me.”
They all swallowed at the utter confidence in my voice. The pyrokinetic stopped looking for a flame and sat back carefully, face rather pale.
“Mr. Petrakis, you look like you have something you want to say?”
Avalanche hesitated, but finally asked, “Why are they dead?”
“Mystique is a multiple murderer, including of the young woman whose face she used to get her job at the Pentagon.” They all flushed despite themselves. “Destiny has been funding a concentration camp that dissects weak young mutants for genetic research. I don’t think either of them needs to be left around to trouble others anymore, do you?”
They swallowed again, realizing who they’d been working with and for. “So,” Avalanche went on, “what kind of jobs?”
“Mr. Allerdyce. Pyrokinetic. Are you interested in becoming the best fireman in the world?” I pulled out a file with my hair, handed it over to him. He blinked as he took it. “I can get the training program approved through the San Diego and LA fire departments in short order, as well as the Park Service. Someone who can put out even the most dangerous fires, as long as he knows what he is doing, will be well-paid, respected, and valued, as long as he can work with others.”
His lips pursed in thought, opening the folder.
“Mr. Petrakis, there are a number of seismologists interested in working with you, as well as construction companies interested in putting through roads and tunnels in rough terrain. There’s a plan out there to administer mini-shocks to the San Andreas Fault to alleviate the build-up of pressure over time, and someone with precise control over shockwaves would be critical to that effort. And well-paid for all that, naturally.”
He also looked thoughtful as my hair handed over his file.
“Mr. Dukes.” His hostile eyes stared flatly at me. “Are you interested in getting out of the thug business? While there are some opportunities for you in construction, it wastes some of your talents. Are you interested in being a smoke jumper and fireman like Mr. Allerdyce?”
His face changed somewhat. “How’s that?” he had to ask.
“Mr. Allerdyce is not immune to flames. You, however, basically are. With nothing but an air supply, you can work a fire from the physical end, with a crew, but you can go into a burning building to save people, or cut a firebreak regardless of how bad the firestorm is, and walk out alive.
“On the flip side, the Powered Enclave near LA needs men who are willing to put themselves between civilians and harm’s way. If you’re willing to stay honest, clean, and brave, you can be a security guard there, among people who will do anything but laugh at you for your appearance and weight.
“Either way works, and you’ll be in a job that actually helps people, instead of having to beat on them.”
Despite himself, he took the folder that was given to him, and stared at it, wondering.
“Mr. Toynbee.” Toad looked back at me with both fear and odd expectation. “I am capable of removing the effects of your mutation entirely, if you so wish, which should revert you to your base human form. If you have read my book, that will still leave you with your Core and the base potential of the Powered.
“I’ve also been informed that you have an impressive amount of technical expertise dealing with high technology. I happen to be in need of imaginative and intelligent technicians, and if your skill is as I was told, I can straight out offer you a six-figure job right now today.”
He gaped at me. “Who...who recommended me?” he had to ask.
“Erik Lensherr,” I answered calmly.
He blanched reflexively, then gaped, as did the rest of them. “M-Magneto?” he gulped, the name like magic.
“While he doesn’t have a lot of respect for your attitude, he did recommend your support skills. Of course, he didn’t have to deal with the problems of an appearance like yours,” I informed him blandly. “Interested in coming to work for me?”
“You can get rid of my appearance? And... I’ll still have some powers?” he had to ask, almost disbelieving.
“Stand up straight!” He did so reflexively, even though he was naturally hunched. “If you work for me, you’re going to be a proud man, Mr. Toynbee. You do not bow and scrape and simper to me! I want smart, driven people on my side, not someone who had to tolerate being called ‘Toad.’” I kept a level gaze on him. “You understand me?”
“Yes-Yes ma’am!” he managed to reply, and kept my eyes.
“Good man!” His grin was very ugly, but I’d seen worse, and I didn’t care. “As for the rest of you, the job offers are in there. If you want to take advantage of them, they are standing. What criminal charges there are on you, I can get dropped. You’ll be free, clear, and able to live a life without having the law hanging over you, mostly because you haven’t actually killed anyone.
“Take your time. But if you fall off the road out of this shitass life you’ve been railroaded into, and just go in deeper, I’m not going to treat you like poor, mistreated mutants. I’m going to treat you like criminals.
“And if you kill somebody for some stupid lameass mutant rights bullshit some chowderhead is foisting off on you, I am going to track you down and deal with you. There are a lot of people like you, who got sent into this life and don’t want to be there. If you want out, you have the way.
“On the flip side...” my voice dropped, and they all looked up at me, “there are true fucking total assholes in the world, and you’re some of the lucky people who were willing to and able to fight back. So, you might be needed to show people how to help defend themselves.” I looked over all four of them. “You’ve got experience. Now, I don’t know how much of the shit of the world you actually saw under Magneto, but there is indeed some very, very bad shit going down in places, and there are people who are going to be coming for the Powered.
“You think you’ve gotten a raw deal, but those people who didn’t get superpowers think you have all the gifts, all the advantages, and they want everything you have, and they are willing to do unspeakable things to get those gifts... to mutants, to mutates, to Deviants, to genetic clones, and to many, many, many normal humans.
“You might... no, let’s be realistic. At some point, you’re going to have to fight again. They won’t be coming for you, directly, any more then they’ll be coming for me. But they’ll be coming for that girl who can shoot confetti out of her fingers, or the one with two noses, or the guy with scorpion tails for hair, and the one with octopus tentacles for fingers.
“They’re gonna come, and they’re gonna be mean, vicious, and lethal.
“You know how to fight, and importantly, you can fight, and you’ve proven it. There are many, many people who are going to need you.
“I’ll do my best to give you normal jobs, normal lives, where you can contribute, feel good about yourselves... but there are some monstrously bad people in the world, and they are going to want to fuck you, me, and everyone else up to get what they want.”
“You ain’t as squeaky clean as you seem in the news,” the Blob hmphed, but part of his anger was mollified.
“I sat down and talked with Magneto for hours, and I have his phone number. I am the single biggest supporter of the mutant groups on the West Coast, their biggest employer, and the Null who has suppressed the powers of those even unluckier than Mr. Toynbee and given them their lives back. I have been hunting Hydra and all the hate groups it funds for years. I am the foremost investor in and power behind the open research into the genetic mess that is humanity and cracking open that Powered code for everyone. I make money through ways illicit and legal to fund all this, and I’m not too worried about doing what the law will not for the right cause, or using the law to bludgeon my opponents for the right cause.
“And I can kill, or I can just beat people up.” That was very soft, and they all shivered. “All right, I have to be going. Mr. Toynbee, would you like to come along?” I got down off the television and held out my hand to him.
His goggly eyes glanced around at the others, but he kicked off his chair, hit the ground, hopped over to me, and took my hand.
My hair flowed down over him, even went up his nose to make sure everything was within range... and then space shifted, and we were gone.
Mystique had called them the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants... a joke title for a joke cause. They were just Powered people given a shit life, and now they had a chance to get out of it.
Would they take it? I was pretty sure they would, and the young man known as Toad certainly wasn’t going to look back.
----
“Mr. Toynbee,” I said after a few minutes, “there seems to be some problems with your genetic code.” I tilted my head at him, as my skin changed color, and my hair did too. My eyes turned distinctly amphibian, and a long and rather shiny tongue wound its way out of my mouth. He blinked as my skin went from a base green with black patterns and began to flow through some very bright patterns and styles, while my figure actually didn’t change much at all.
“You have a very impressive suite of abilities, Mr. Toynbee, but it seems they’ve been destabilized at some point.” I gestured at myself. “That hunchback form of yours is a mistake. I should be able to repair the genetic damage, and you can stabilize it with your Core, the way I showed you.” He still couldn’t believe I’d kissed him for three minutes, nor that my tongue was longer than his.
His hand flexed, and a short green knife hummed into existence in it. He stared at it despite himself. “Will... will I still be able to look normal?” he asked hesitantly.
I stopped the panoply of colors, reverting to a base pattern of green and black. “You’re actually more like a frog then a toad as far as amphibians go. You’ve got some ability to make toxins on your skin, like a poison frog, or your saliva. You can stick to walls like a frog, your tongue can extend to a good distance and is telekinetically strong.” He blinked as twenty feet of said tongue flicked out of my mouth, and hung in the air like a living whip, twisting and shifting. “Expansive ability to inhale...” I did so, recalling my tongue, and my throat and chest bulged out as the skin became a membranous sack, able to hold it all, letting it go with a long, drawn-out croaking, leaving no hint behind of abnormality. “And some ability to communicate with amphibians, in addition to very impressive leaping ability and strong legs. I imagine you’ll be an impressively fast swimmer, and can hold your breath for a very long time, even breathing slightly through your skin to extend that.”
He blinked at me in disbelief. “Me? I’m supposed to be able to do all that?”
I nodded down at him. “Yes, a very diverse and strong suite of abilities.” I eyed him speculatively. “And if you practice with your Mindblade and Core enough, this amphibious form will be just like an alternate form you can put on when you want to. Congratulations, Mr. Toynbee. Very impressive, indeed.”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “I wish I would have had it years ago,” he said, shaking his head.
“Enough maudlin,” I rolled my slitted eyes, holding out my hand. “Let’s get you fixed. You should be ‘normal’, such as it is, within a week as your body corrects itself. If you focus on training up your Mindblade and controlling your Core, you should be able to look human within a month or two.”
“A-Another kiss?” he stammered, shock and hope on his face.
“Am I that hideous?” I replied back, looking back at him with arched brow, and that overly long tongue coming out of my mouth.
“N-no, ma’am,” he stammered, unable to stop himself. I held out my hand, and he bobbed over in deference and longing...
