Chapter 15- Junior Brotherhood

Chicago- Warehouse near the docks, March- 17, 2008 (Night)

Anna Marie ‘Rogue’ Hopewell

Anna slammed into the wall of crates and winced as she waited for the grenade to go off. After a moment, and it didn’t, she looked around her. Mama Raven was exchanging shots with the prone gunman, and the two heavy hitters were still in a struggle, with Grizzly holding Anaconda’s elongated arms

The tall blonde woman was still trying to pull her arms free from the bear-like man's grip. "Damn it Griz, do you want me to kill you?” Anaconda asked her teammate.

Other than increasing the pressure in his grip, all the large man muttered was. “Protect Murmur…” Anna could see the man was bleeding from holding the woman’s wrist, from the spikes mounted at her wrists.

She knew that she was nowhere in the weight class of these two, so if she wanted to survive, Anna needed to be sneaky. So she holstered her gun, before removing one of her gloves. If she was gonna do what Mama Raven had asked, and take down the blonde woman, she would need to touch her skin directly. So she looked over the tall muscular woman.

She had exposed flesh on her neck, shoulders, and thighs. Anna frowned at the odd folds of flesh where the woman's neck met her shoulders. Anna figured that the thighs were the best at first. But then she thought about the woman kicking her like an animal might, so she changed her plans just as Anna started to run at the tall woman.

Anaconda heard and turned her face to see the teen coming at them, and just like she feared, the large woman reared her leg up to kick at her. So Anna was glad she had changed her target at the last minute, and jumped up and with her gloved hand grabbed the woman’s leotard collar, before she placed her exposed hand on the odd folds on the woman’s neck.

The veins in Anaconda's, no Blanche's, neck and face stood out as they turned black. Energy and memories poured into Anna. As they did, the warehouse faded away. She was now in a tank. A gas mask was on her face, so that she could breathe. Several men were walking around the lab she was in, noting her vitals and figure as she floated naked in the tank.

A moment later a red and green solution was injected into the tank, it took only seconds before her body began to absorb the chemicals in the water, causing her skin and muscles to burn as they changed. It was mostly in her arms and legs, but honestly, all of her ached. Then it was her neck. That seared even worse than her arms. As the burning faded, Blanche noticed that she wasn’t breathing through the mask anymore, but through gills that had grown in her neck.

Anna quickly released her grip on the woman. Anaconda fell slack, and would have hit the floor if Grizzly still wasn't holding her now normal-looking arms. The two women slid towards him, as the blonde lost the strength to fight and passed out.

“Protect Murmur.” the big man repeated, his eyes seeing nothing in front of him.

Not that Anna heard it. She was lost in another memory that wasn’t hers. She was at a military academy, not for any nation or armed service, but a secret one opened by a retired mercenary. Anna was Blanche again, and she was in a sand pit fighting another woman with a padded staff. No matter what she tried to do to hit her, the shorter slimmer redhead dodged out of the way, almost as if the woman in front of her could read her like a book.

Still, the smaller girl couldn't land a blow on her either, not with her longer reach. Then the small woman did something she wasn't ready for, she used the staff like a pole vault, and landed a knee into Anna's left ear. The young redhead with blue eyes smirked, as she fell back onto her ass.

The sound of crying brought Anna back into the warehouse.

She cautiously walked around the mind-controlled giant and inched her way into a maze of crates. After the second turn, she saw her sister curled up and crying. Anna was worried that Arlette was hurt so she rushed to the other teen’s side.

Her sister turned and tried to get away from her, muttering. “No, stay away.”

Anna got in close, and with her absorbed strength easily pulled her sister to a standing position. She looked Arlette over, looking for the injury, but her sister seemed fine. Until she looked at Arlette’s face. The make-up she so consciously applied every day, had come off. Anna tried to figure out how but then decided the how was unimportant. So she hugged her sister to her, careful to not touch her skin with her ungloved hand.

“It’s fine, you can fix it later," Anna whispered into Arlette’s ear.

"No, it's not, you saw it, and the others will see it too." Arlette cried.

"I already knew." She lied to her sister, but added something to make it believable. "I was in your head, remember?" Then she released the hug so that they could look into each other in the eyes.

Under Arlette’s left eye and ear was a large chemical burn. It didn't distort or warp her flesh, but it was obviously a paler shade than the rest of her skin, and it would be clear to anyone who saw her face.

Both of them stared into the other’s green eyes, as Anna tried to wipe away her sister’s tears.

Arlette moped for a bit before complaining. “But the others will still see it too.”

“And? We’re your family. We are neither disgusted nor scared. I would kiss it, if my doing so wouldn’t knock you out…Now, com’on we got to find Kurt, he’s still out there fighting.” Anna smiled at her own joke and thumb back towards the exit she came from.

Arlette nodded once, but they both stopped when they heard some gunshots go off above them. They both looked up and saw a pair of Kurts standing on a pair of I-beams holding the roof up. One was armed with a sword, while the other had a pistol and a knife out.

The one with the gun shot again, and the one with the sword dodged toward a window in the side of the roof. Only because of the way he lunged was he able to get through the hole. Then the other disappeared in a puff of gas, clearly teleporting after the other Kurt.

“She can copy clothing too? Because they both have the same outfits on.” Arlette complained after the vanished.

"We are going after them," Anna ordered.

Her sister asked. “How?”

Anna acted instead of answering. She picked the other teen in a princess carry, and then triggered her borrowed powers, stretching her legs so she was as tall as the stack of crates. She put her sister on top of the stack and then climbed up herself. Then she repeated the process again to get them to the now broken window.

With her strength and long arms, she punched out some more of the glass, before stretching over to grab the frame. With the increased strength it didn't take too much effort to deform the frame to fit a crouching person's body. Then she pulled herself over to it. Once seated on the frame she saw the Kurts in a running knife fight, either the one with the gun was low or out of ammo. Also out on the dock, near the ship, she spotted Exodus in the air, seemingly still continuing his fight with the group's leader.

Anna stretched back and grabbed her sister, before the two of them jumped down, as they fell, she stretched her legs again to brace their fall. Once back on the ground, she looked around for their brother. Arlette on the other hand, shied away. So she could hide in the shadow of the warehouse.

Anna sighed, but understood. So she pulled her own pistol, and a spare clip. She offered them to her sister, asking. “Can you support us from afar?”

The older teen took the gun, cleared a round, and checked the sight before nodding and taking the spare clip too.

Anna ran to the sound of people teleporting, sure enough next to another closed warehouse the two Kurts stood off. Both of them had minor cuts, and the one with the gun also seemed to have a couple of bruises. Like someone had been punched him a couple of times. Beyond that, and the gear the two looked identical.

‘I need to get one to act out of place.’ Anna thought before shouting. “Jumper, go left!"

The one with the sword obeyed and jumped to the left so that Anna would have a clear shot at the other Kurt. Meanwhile, the other Kurt just stomped his foot in frustration. So she shot out her ungloved hand and grabbed the face of the Kurt who moved.

At first like it usually did, the Kurt in her grasp veins turned white instead of black, as the vitality and memories poured into her. Then as ‘Kurt’ shifted and turned into the albino woman, her veins also changed to look black like most everybody’s did when her powers affected them.

Once she pulled the woman into a regular hug, she released the woman's mouth. Anna didn't want to risk, the woman being cut here and there, taking too much from her.

“How… did you… know?” The woman asked as she fought to stay awake.

“His name isn’t Jumper. I just call him that to tease him.” Anna explained to the woman passed out in her arms.

"This will continue till I pick a name won't it?" The real Kurt asked, after slowly walking over to stand with her.

“Probably. Where did you get the gun?” Anna asked, after she laid the albino woman down on the docks.

"I took it from her, I was worried she might shoot Mom." He explained. Then glanced over towards the shadow of the warehouse and asked. "Did her make-up wash off?"

“Yeah… how did you know?” Anna asked after a moment of answering him.

"It's not just my hearing that is sharper," Kurt admitted.

She nodded in understanding, she really hadn’t noticed him having sharper vision when she took his powers, but she did notice that she could see pretty well regardless of the amount of light, while she had his powers. Then both of them looked towards their older sister for a moment, as both of them felt it better to not talk about their sister's scars.

“Nightcrawler," Kurt muttered.

“mmm?” she hummed back in confusion.

Her brother smiled, before announcing. “I am the amazing Nightcrawler.”

Then they hear an odd mechanical whine from inside the warehouse. And a couple of seconds later a wordless wail drowned out all the other sounds, those caused by the nearby water, people breathing, and any of the dwindling fighting that was still going on.

“What was that?” Kurt asked her.

"I have no idea," Anna admitted.

The two of them ran for the hole in the side of the warehouse, as she did Anna felt a strain on her muscles and a weight in her neck fade and vanish. Signaling to her that she lost the powers that she had taken from Anaconda, she still had those of Copycats. It let her feel a sort of connection to those around her, like if fell into it or touched them she could become them.

Nevertheless, with her own powers, she felt that touching anyone was out of the question.

As they moved, she wondered why her brother didn’t just teleport back into the warehouse, but those thoughts faded when she saw Exodus.

He was standing over the body of the Six-Pack leader. Surprisingly the light manipulator was floating. His left leg and arm hung limply and bleed onto the ground beneath him.

Not that the mercury leader was much better. The bloody sight of the man reminded Anna of a movie that the whole family had watched together when Mama Raven had time off from the Brotherhood, ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ opening scene. As Kane was missing much of his arms and legs, as he lay bleeding. Yet he was still alive enough to spit and swear at the floating mutant.

“Fucking do it, you sack of shit! What kind of life will I have after this bullshit?!” Kane shouted at the floating man.

“Don’t.” a soft serious voice ordered.

Exodus willed a flying sword of light towards the speaker. The kids heard the mechanical whine again, before a series of blasts of green energy were fired through the hole in the wall.

The first two took apart the flying sword. Exodus reformed the other sword in his hand into a shield to protect himself with it, but another three bolts tore that apart too.

Then an older man stepped out of the hole. Anna assumed he was old because his hair and chin stubble were pure white. That and his face and exposed flesh had scars crisscrossing here and there. He was perhaps the second largest person Anna had ever seen, and he was wearing heavy tactical armor that covered his chest, shoulders, and legs as well.

She thought it odd, that his left arm seemed to be made of metal, and his left eye glowed like a light.

"That was setting one, Exodus." the old soldier muttered and then toggled a switch on his odd rifle. They all heard the whine again before the man said. "Now it's on setting two, shall I continue?"

After a moment of no one speaking, the old man stepped all of the way out of the hole to stand in full view of them. Then Grizzly walked out, behind him. Instead of attacking them, the red furry just growled.

“Who the fuck are you?” Kane asked from the ground.

"He's the client boss," Grizzly said to his leader.

"You're no arms dealer," Exodus stated, as he floated a touch closer to the ground.

“No. I am a man on a mission.” The old man replied. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small can. It looked to Anna like it was a can of spray paint, but he offered it to the big man next to him and said. “It’s medical foam, use it to save your boss’s life.”

The large furry nodded, before skirting around the floating man to get to the dying one.

The old man and Exodus just stared at each other, till the old one ordered. "Offer it."

“You can read minds?” The light manipulator asked.

"I can. And you get only one more answer, so choose your next question wisely." The rifleman answered. Anna flinched when suddenly the rifle barrel shifted towards them, and the old man added. "Don't kid. Sudden teleports make war vets itchy."

Anna heard her brother growl in response.