eneMy of My eneMy II
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Driving toward the compound, I felt so out of place. Reed and Cate were obviously glad that Andy was here, but the silence from Lauren didn't help me in my case.
There are times like these that I missed my dad.
The mother chuckles, "I can't believe you're driving. You two really missed out on me teaching you in our old minivan."
"Yeah," smiles Andy, "We got a bunch of cars. Took a couple of crushed bumpers, but I got the hang of it."
"You know," Reed speaks, "a lot of things have changed since we've all left Atlanta. We've changed."
"Yeah, of course," I nod, "But how so?"
"I've never really understood how it felt for you to have powers, what that was like. But when you two left... my X-Gene started to manifest."
"What?!" Andy and I freaked.
"Y-You have powers?" My eyes stared at the man, as he nodded a 'yes'.
"Lauren, why didn't you tell me this?" Andy looked to the mirror, at his sister.
"You mean in our dreams? Sorry, didn't come up." She was clearly upset with us being here, and I don't blame her.
"Well, that's crazy, Dad, but it's cool. Welcome to the club," Andy says.
"Yeah, I wish it was like that."
"What do you mean?" I ask, "What are your abilities?"
"I was, um... I was destroying things. My abilities have been suppressed for so long that when they came out... they were out of control."
"But we found some meditation. It seems to be working for now," Cate adds.
"For now?"
"Anyway, that point is," Reed continues, "I know what you've been going through, the both of you."
"Look... Andy, Lux, we've all grown. We should be together as a family," Cate insists, "If you would just come back——"
"Mom, please don't ask me that." Andy just stares at the road.
"Lux, what happened?" Reed gently grabs my hand.
"There was a fight," I answer, vaguely, "and I won."
As the three Struckers looked confused and was concerned, Andy only look as guilty as ever, which was noticed not only by me but by Lauren too.
❅ ❅ ❅
The team crowds around the gate, watching the compound, with many Mutant-haters walking along freely. It was heavily armed, but so open that it looked as if they were unprepared — a lie to lure us into believing we can make it.
"I hate to say this, but this looks even worse than the satellite photos," Marcos stated.
"Well, we didn't even know where John was this morning. Let's just hurry up and get over there," Clarice grumbled.
"I used to deal with places like this as a prosecutor," Reed says, "They can't afford mutant protection systems, so they just plan for any range of mutant attacks. Besides the armed guards, and the fence being electrified, it looks like there's a minefield on the other side of the lake."
"Well, lucky I can bend space-time. I can just portal is past the minefield."
"Yeah, and pop out to get shot. There's an army over there," Cate warns.
"Lorna can handle the bullets, right?"
"Mm-hmm," The Dane nods.
"Well, there's a lot of bullets coming from a lot of different places. There's a couple dozen Purifiers in there," Marcos reasons.
Clarice shakes her head. "Then keep them busy someplace else. We can't just give up on this."
"No one's saying that, all right?" Marcos turns to Lorna. "You think you could attack the other side of the compound as a distraction."
"We could do that."
"Lux, Andy, Lauren, come with me, help find John?" The portal mutant looked at us.
We all agreed.
"We'll drive the cars around, keep them out of sight," Cate explains.
"We'll meet back here," Reed says, "Guys, you be careful, okay?"
Our plan was finally set in motion.
As Clarice takes one side of the fence, the three of us when to the other, as Lauren was looking through binoculars.
"There's the back door. It's crawling with Purifiers," The blonde says.
"Hope Clarice can find something better," I comment.
Andy looks to his sister. "Hey, you've been quiet."
"It's weird. Having you two here in person," She tells.
"You're not happy about it?"
"I just... don't believe it. You two are talking to mom and dad like everything's so great at the Inner Circle. But, Andy... I know. You're the one that wanted to talk to me in that dream last night."
I was confused when she mentioned about their dream, but I had to ignore it, it wasn't my business, only theirs.
"Yeah, I was a little lonely——"
"And you couldn't just talk to Lux about it?"
"We broke up," I state, which greatly shocked Lauren.
She looked at us as if undertaking the signs that were displayed. She had to slowly process it as if that were to be the last thing that could happen.
Andy went back on track. "The Inner Circle's still doing important stuff——"
"Important stuff? How about that girl you broke out of the mental hospital? She killed those people at the bank, didn't she?"
Andy remained silent.
"... I can assume she's the one that made Lux look that way that she is."
"You can shut up now," I speak.
"Am I not wrong though? She literally broke you, Lux."
"Yeah, I know. But you don't know shit about what happened. Don't act like you know everything about this, you weren't there."
Suddenly, Clarice came to us. "This spot's as good as it gets."
"Seriously?" The girl sighs, "There are a dozen guys guarding that door."
I couldn't help and felt a little scared of this. It's not like I haven't faced worse, but the thought of Purifiers having hold of me, like how they have John, seems like a total nightmare.
"Well, let's just hope Lorna and Marcos do their job. You guys ready?" The three of us nod to her. "Let's start the fireworks."
A message was sent to Lorna and Marcos and soon, the metal fence broke out, with the two of them walking in the field, ready to fight.
With more explosions, the Purifiers ran toward the distraction.
"It's working. They're drawing the guards away," I comment.
Clarice quickly gets up and creates the portal, with all of just jumping in. Andy and Lauren take lead to search, like Blink and I stay behind them.
With ease the two siblings pushed the Purifiers out of the way, making an easy path for us.
As we walk, Lauren shouts, "Clarice!"
A Purifier came from behind us, gun ready, and shot the woman, but she wasn't injured. I was impressed as she had a portal in front of her, making it as the bullet shot the man and not her.
I whisper, "What the..."
"It's complicated," She says, nonchalantly, "I'll explain later."
As make our way toward a long hallway, which leads to a single door. Andy pushes the door, breaking it, to see John in bad conditions.
I gasped a little, seeing that he was chained to a metal pole, with bullet holes patterned to his chest.
Despite that, Clarice didn't seem to care, her eyes only went to John, as if he looked the same and wasn't hurt. "Hey, handsome. You ready to go home?"
Looking around the room more, they were set on torture for John. Chainsaws, crowbars, guns, it was uncomfortable, to say the least.
Honestly, it bothered me that I didn't know the number, the number of mutants that have been in here and have experienced the worst, the number that have died here.
I couldn't let this stop me, as Andy pulls me away and help me continue, as Clarice helped John. We all walked out of the building, as Thunderbird was trying his best to run or at the best walk.
Suddenly, a gunshot was fired behind us, I looked to see the bullet missed, barely missing me.
Andy stretched his arm out and the Purifier was flown to the ground, but the boy still walked over to him.
"You trying to kill my girlfriend?!" He shouts to the man, with pure venom, "Shot her in the back?! You coward!"
He flicked his wrist and the man was pushed over, groaning from how out of breath he was.
"It's okay, Andy. Let it go," I say, but he wasn't listening.
"Where do you think you're going, man?"
As the man tried to run away, Andy crunched his hand to a fist, breaking the man's leg. I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands. The Purifier was at the point of pleading, but Andy wasn't moved.
"You're not so tough now, are you?"
Another crunch and his other leg broken, just like the same. But I was shocked to see a sort of smirk on his face.
"Lux! Lux, do something!" Lauren shouts to me.
I felt dazed, it looked like Andy liked hurting the man... he reminded me of Rebecca.
"A-Andy, stop," I tell him, but I was too quiet.
"Andy, let's go!" I charge to him, seeing him lift his arm out. "Andy!"
My hand came into contact with his wrist and my ice froze around it like a cuff, the sudden coldness must've awakened him, as he shrinks from it.
He turns to me in anger, but I pull him by the shirt, remarking, "We are leaving."
Clarice made the portal and all of us left, as Marcos and Lorna went with Johan and Blink, the Struckers stuck by us.
"W-We did it," Andy smiles, trying to wipe off my ice, "We made it out. Did you see that? That's what he gets for..."
He could see all the disappointed faces of his family, they didn't say anything, they didn't even question the ice cuff.
"... messing with..."
As he turns to me, I rubbles my temples together. The smile Andy had on his smile, was the exact same smile that Rebecca had on when she murdered those people at the bank; it frightened me or the core.
Marcos quickly calls off us and we had to run away, but I knew this wasn't over by a long shot.
❅ ❅ ❅
We finally were a safe distance away. Andy was quick to try and find some space but the Struckers ruined that for him, as I stayed behind from the conversation.
"Hey, Andy, can we talk to you?" Reed asked.
"There's nothing to talk about. I saw how you looked at me."
"I know you're upset," Caitlin calms, "but... we love you. All of this time, we have been trying to find you, fighting to bring you home."
He scoffs, "You really think that I'm just gonna abandon everything I believe in, everything I worked for?"
"I-I know you think you're-you're doing the right thing, that you're working for some greater cause——"
"Yeah. I'm not leaving the Inner Circle!"
Reed tries to help. "Andy... we're just worried about you."
"That Purifier was trying to murder Lux. Do you know what him and his friends want to do to mutants like us? They're monsters. But, what if it was Lauren who was shot at? Would you still be talking to me about this?"
"Can you hear yourself? I know that——"
"No! You don't know anything, okay? You don't get it. There's only one thing to do to people like that, and it's wipe them out! End them!"
I had enough. I got up from where I sat and left to a quieter place, for myself. I couldn't believe the things he was saying to his family, the hate behind his words... it's indescribable.
Her name plays in my head, engraving it into my brain: Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca.
My eyes began to tear up a little, leaking me rub them so hard to try and make them hold it back.
"Lux, Lux, I can explain." I could hear Andy's voice coming behind me.
"There's no need to. I know where you stand on things, I know your position in this," I tell him, refusing to even look at him.
"Back there, I was just angry, okay? That Purifier almost killed you. You were inches away from not making it, do you not understand that."
"I do. But what I do know was that one hit was enough, the rest was from your one pleasure," I state, "We could have left with that, but no, you just had broken his legs for good measure."
"It wasn't from the pleasure it was to protect you——"
"I know what protection looks like!" I turn to him, anger written on my face. "You were not protecting me. Andy, I saw you, you were smirking at him, as he pleaded for his life. You enjoyed that so desperately, it genuinely made me scared."
He seemed to be taken back from this. "Y-You were..."
"You deeply reminded me of her, Rebecca. The way she had that grin on her face when she killed the people in that small room, it was practically identical."
"I am nothing like Rebecca," He grinned.
"Well, you damn sound like her when you want to 'end them.'"
"So you believe that all of these Purifiers should live, after everything they've done and believe?"
"I never said I didn't want to get rid of them completely. Some of these people clearly do not understand what they are doing, some do, but killing all of them isn't how you do it."
"I didn't mean what I said! You know me, Lux, you know that I don't believe that." He holds into my hand.
"I don't even know who you are, at this point. You're sure as hell, not the same Andy that I knew."
I broke his grip around my wrist and walked off. I couldn't even see him as the same, he was different, a stranger; he isn't my best friend, my old boyfriend. The Inner Circle has changed him... and now, I don't even know if the Inner Circle is worth working for anymore.
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