Gravity pt. 4
The responses I've been getting on fanfiction.net have been so inspiring! I've been doing a lot of Brand/Beast artwork, and while I can't post it to my DA gallery too much (I'm known for other, less fangirly things) I'm happy to share them here. For example, a preview of the events of Gravity, pt. 4:
Part five will be up soon. Five is the first section where I have very little at the time of posting the previous section; usually I work about a "chapter" ahead. By then S.W.O.R.D. #1 will be out and it will invalidate half of the events and characterization I've been working on! Hooray!
On with the show.
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The infinite depth of the stars as they stretched out from the reinforced windows on the Peak gave Henry a sense of vertigo if he stared for too long. Spanning the entire wall of the corridor and curved slightly outward, when Henry came close enough that the starfield closed in on his periphery, he was overcome with a sense of falling. He touched the window to ground himself.
Even here, it was hard to get his mind on the present. The lure of solving the mysteries surrounding Brand kept him locked in his own mind, reviewing what he knew about her over and over. If giving him a series of riddles about her personal life to unravel was a part of Brand’s plans to keep him interested in her… but no, she backed off when he told her so. Keeping secrets was a part of who she was, which made Henry feel better. If encouraging him to figure her out was a move on Brand’s part to get him in bed, Henry would have a much harder time resisting.
He frowned. His mind was going places he didn’t give it permission to think about. He needed another distraction. Eyeing the corridor, he noticed a sign to the side of a stairwell, announcing that the cafeteria was directly below where he stood now. His stomach cramped with hunger, remembering that the last time he ate was yesterday. Imagining pre-packaged astronaut food made him wish he thought far enough ahead to bring leftovers from the bar.
Sniffing the air, Henry was greeted with a pleasant surprise-the smell of cooking food. He took the stairs two or three at once, all thoughts extinguished by the possibility of good food. Bursting into the cafeteria through the double doors at the bottom of the stairwell, he was immediately drawn to the serving tables, where every food imaginable, from Earth and elsewhere, stewed under heat lamps. He grabbed a plate and went to work on heaping it with a little bit of everything. He made a special effort to include foods of alien origins on his dish, deciding he would be a philistine to limit himself to solely human foods. Cooking was an art, after all.
Once he was satisfied by his selection, Henry scanned the cafeteria tables for a place to sit. A sense of uneasiness struck him-he may have kept to himself in the X-Mansion lab, but he was never unpopular. Here, there were clearly defined social groups, and Brand did a good job of making sure he didn’t fit in anywhere but with her. He spotted a half-empty table and approached the seat at the far end, but the interest in the eyes of the people on the other side encouraged him to sit among them. Might as well start making up for the damage Brand did to his reputation as soon as possible.
He offered his hand to the first person who met his gaze. “Hello,” he said, trying to keep his tone light and friendly. Years of new students at the academy made him used to introductions, but that was a situation where he was in a position of clear authority. “I’m new here, and I don’t believe we’ve met. My name is-“
“McCoy, right?” The man he spoke took Henry’s hand in his own, pumping it with amusement. “Saw you come through the map room yesterday. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Oh, God,” Henry sighed, withdrawing his hand and adjusting his glasses. “Whatever you may hear, I can assure you of its falsehood. I’m not that kind of person.”
The man grinned at his companions. “Actually, I meant the fact that we have a genuine superhero joining the team. But if you really want to talk about the other rumors….”
Tension eased itself from Henry’s shoulders and he allowed himself a smile. “I’ve quite had my fill of hearing what latest stories are being told about me,” he admitted. “But I don’t believe I caught your names….”
“I’m Johnson,” the man replied. Pointing to the woman next to him, he said, “This is Brown. Our friend over here,” he said, indicating the alien who sat across from Henry, who had skin like an otter, “doesn’t have a name we can pronounce, so we just call him Smith.”
“Pleased to meet all of you. I….“ He stopped when he saw they were staring. He checked the fur around his mouth; he didn’t have anything on his face, so what was-
“McCoy. Your presssence isss required.”
The cheeriness Henry fooled himself into thinking had formed between him and his new companions evaporated with the appearance of Sydren. He turned to grudgingly face the red alien. “I haven’t even had my first bite,” he sighed, indicating his full plate. “This could wait fifteen more minutes.”
“You’re living on the Peak for a reassson,” Sydren retored. “If you exssspected time to yourssself, you ssshould have requesssted to live on our ground bassse.”
“Let me get a container for this, at least.” He gave his acquaintances a sorry glance. “Could I fool myself into hoping we’ll have time to talk later?”
Johnson nodded. “We’ll be here. Have fun!”
Sydren had a quick stride that Henry found hard to match. Considering the ease with which he moved, Henry guessed that Sydren’s homeworld either had a denser atmosphere or stronger gravity.
“Actually,” Sydren said, head forward like he was speaking to the air in front of him, “my people are sssemi-aquatic. It’sss much easssier to move around when you’re not waissst-deep in water.”
Right, Henry reminded himself. Psychic.
“’Empath’ would be a better term to ussse,” Sydren corrected him. “I sssense thingsss, I don’t read mindsss.” Henry sent an annoyed thought his way, and Sydren shook his head. “I don’t hate you, McCoy. I jussst believe our illussstrious director made a missstake to hire from outssside Sss.W.O.R.D. rather than promote sssomeone internally. Nothing persssonal.”
“Forgive me if I take your words with a grain of salt. You two don’t exactly get along.”
“No, we don’t,” Sydren agreed, “but we ssstill work well together. The sssame could be sssaid of you.” He smirked. “Ssshe can be a bitch, but ssshe’s very professsional.”
Henry’s annoyance rose. “She may be a touch disagreeable, but with the way you and the rest of the crew act, she’s in good company.”
Sydren shook his head in amusement. “You have no need to defend her actionsss. Jussst because you’ve entertained the sssame thoughtsss about her that go through the headsss of half the crew-“
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Henry sputtered. “I find this topic of conversation highly inappropriate!”
Sydren snickered. “Of courssse you do. The funny thing isss, while ssshe may be on the thoughts of every human male on the Peak, you are the firssst who hasss a chancssse with her. Or, ssshould I sssay, had.”
Henry’s mind went back to the pictures of Brand with the aliens. “What-“
Sydren interrupted him by opening a door at the end of the hall. “Here we are. Map room.” He motioned for Henry to enter.
Brand leaned over a computer display, all attention in the room focused on her next move. She was still in her tank top and dark pants, and her tousled hair brushed her shoulders. For her to be in the middle of a meeting now meant she could not have gotten more than an hour of sleep. The bruise on her cheek and eyebrow was gone, but purple shadows deepened the circles under her eyes.
She looked up, and hardly glanced over Sydren before locking on Henry. Even as she kept her gaze set on him, her face erased itself of any emotion. It was like watching an invisible artist erase any shadows or character lines that might give her away. “What’s he doing here?”
The sly flicker of Sydren’s yellow eyes going back and forth was enough to tip Henry off that something was not right. “He’sss a part of the team now, isssn’t he? He ssshould be here when sssomething comesss up.”
A muscle twitched in Brand’s jaw. She looked at him, but her focus was elsewhere, internal. Henry was the first to avert his gaze and it snapped her out of her thoughts. “Fine,” she said, turning back to the monitor. “Recognize these guys?”
Henry winced at the display of twisted, skeletal creatures. “Phalanx.” That brought back memories.
She nodded, face still turned to the screen. The curve of her cheek was outlined in light, almost invisible, but he swore he saw a green eye flicker in his direction. “Been following this group for the better part of a year. It’s mostly cut and dry monitoring. We’ve been trying to trace this group to the source of their techno-organic infection. But recently they’ve been working on something new-an airborne pathogen. Set it off in a crowded city and you’ll have millions of new Phalanx by the next day.”
“Why have you been waiting to take them down?” Henry demanded. “If they’re as much of a threat as you say, then how can you content yourselves with just watching?”
Brand turned and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. Her demeanor was not as calm as her face. “Do you have any idea how big space is, professor? Maybe you think it’s easy to chase small fry around the solar system, let alone the galaxy.” Her tone was venomous. “In the big leagues, McCoy, every problem we deal with directly is a matter of planetary safety. That’s why we often can’t catch the smaller threats until they balloon into big ones.” She turned to glare at him full-force. “Got any other brilliant suggestions about how I should run the show?”
The force of her gaze set him back a step. The fury in her eyes, he knew, wasn’t just a reaction to his latest comment, but the result of the slow build-up that began as soon as she arrived in the bar yesterday. He arranged his expression so he looked more deferential than defiant. “All right, what are we going to do about it?”
“We,” she said, indicating Sydren, herself, and a couple other men, “are going to locate and visit the headquarters where they’ve developed this stuff and do a little housecleaning. You,” she continued, pointing to Henry, “are going to watch.”
“Brand-“
“No. You are still officially in your ‘training’ period. I can’t have a liability on a mission.”
Ignoring her anger in favor of some of his own, Henry stepped forward, coming nearly chest-to-chest with her. He was maybe six inches taller than her, but he was much larger, and used it to his advantage as he tried to loom. “I have never been a liability to you! Every time we’ve partnered up, I’ve always been a benefit! I’m a trained X-Man, a scientist of highest caliber, and I’m what you told me you needed-someone to question you! That’s what I’m doing now, isn’t it?”
Getting close to Brand made him realize how much heat she gave off. Whether it was her anger or her temperature, she was-literally-very hot. With the heat of her gaze focused directly on him, Henry remembered too late that he would never win a staring contest with her. He was intense, but she surpassed him easily. Out of the corner of his eyes, Henry could see the tips of her hair tremble with fury. If he kept staring, would she kill him? Or kiss him?
“I feel I mussst agree with Dr. McCoy,” Sydren interjected, breaking the tension. They both blinked. “Having a ssscientist on our team would be… handy.”
Brand shot Sydren a look of loathing. “I guess I’m outnumbered, then. Welcome to the team, McCoy. Grab a suit and let’s go.”
Exiting the changing room wearing his new S.W.O.R.D. issued uniform-slash-spacesuit, Henry headed to the shuttle bay. Brand and her crew gathered near a five-man craft. Feeling apologetic, Henry turned to her as they loaded in. “What do you think?” he asked, keeping his tone light.
Brand barely glanced his way before getting into her seat. A moment passed as the engine revved before she grunted, “S’better than your X-uniform.”
Henry brightened. He didn’t want her to hate him. “And why, pray tell, is that? I was always quite fond of the superhero costumes.”
Brand shrugged, looking sourly out the cockpit window as the ship left the bay. “Never saw the appeal of running around in my underwear.”
“I never-“
“Oh yes you did!” She jabbed a finger in his direction, but her anger was a touch amused. “You wore your little black man-panties with an X on them for years! What the hell possessed you to think that was flattering?!”
Sydren and one of the men tittered to themselves and Henry felt the corners of his mouth turn. “Oh come now, you’ve seen how hairy I am!” He put his hand over hers to prove it. “Any clothes this covering become impossibly hot.”
Her passive expression became less forced and she turned her hand upwards so her fingers brushed his. “Hairy palms.”
He grinned. “Only one girlfriend since I turned blue.” He patted her hand, fingers momentarily entwining. Her hand closed and jumped into her lap. She looked away. His smile disappeared-he thought he was getting somewhere. “Abigail….”
She pointed to a screen. “Ceres.” Her tone became stiff as she addressed the rest of the cabin. “Largest asteroid in the belt, and this is where the intel says they’re developing the pathogen.” She reached under her seat, withdrawing a black case. She opened it, revealing a set of shapes embedded in foam. She assembled them into a gun and offered it to Henry.
He took it after some prompting. “I don’t normally use these… and where would I put it?”
Brand pushed her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose so she could better inspect Henry’s belt. “It’s the holster on your-oh, you put it on wrong.” Henry tugged on his belt uselessly as she leaned over, turning the holster around on its loop. “Stop squirming.”
“I think I put the whole utility belt on wrong.”
Her hands slapped his out of the way as they climbed to his middle to readjust the buckle. “Yes, you did. If you’d just hold still….” It clicked. “There.” She slid the gun into its holster, which now sat snug against Henry’s hip.
He checked the status of his utility belt, finding that it was indeed properly fitted. When Henry turned back to Brand, he found her assembling an even bigger gun. “Is that one also for me?”
“No,” Brand said, snapping the final piece into place, “it’s for me.”
“Incoming on the Ceres base,” one of Brand’s men announced.
“You boys ready?” Brand asked, snapping together a second gun. “Just destroying their equipment will only set them back a couple months. We need to take out anyone that looks like they’re in charge, but leave a couple alive so we can see if they return to the source of their infection.”
The craft swept into an empty bay, the doors closing behind it. Sydren checked something on his monitor. “Air presssure isss Earth normal.”
Brand unstrapped herself from the seat. “Good. Try not to hit any of the life support systems while we’re in there and this’ll be a breeze.” She shot Henry a glance. “Think you can work the buckles on the seatbelt, or do I have to do that for you too?”
“Ha, ha,” he grumbled.
The doors on either side of the cockpit hissed open. “I sssense sssomething very wrong,” Sydren murmured, opening a door with care. He swiveled his head to either side, looking over the docking bay with a trained eye.
“Then we proceed with caution,” Brand replied. “And that’s official. If any of you die, it’s not my fault.”
“How comforting.”
“Shut it, McCoy. The moment we’re out the door, I don’t want to hear a word. We’re ghosts.” The two other men whispered something between themselves. “That goes the same for you,” Brand snapped. She wore a gun on either hip and held a third in her hand.
“I don’t underssstand,” Sydren muttered. “They’re here, yesss, but they’re hard to pinpoint… they’re all… waiting for sssomething….”
“Then let’s make sure that something doesn’t happen.” Looking around at her team one more time, Brand set her jaw and opened the door fully. She signaled for them to wait as she snuck around the side of the ship, taking cover behind a stack of crates. They followed her, footsteps echoing eerily throughout the bay. When they were all gathered near the entrance to the base, Brand checked in with Sydren. “What’s their positions?” she hissed.
“The onesss we’re after are in the ssscience lab. There are few othersss on bassse right now,” Sydren whispered back.
“Good enough. Can you navigate?”
Sydren nodded and straightened from behind a wall, using his long neck to peer into the corridor. “Follow me.” Guns drawn, they made their way down the empty hallway towards a set of glass double-doors. Sydren motioned to the doors and stalked towards them.
“You said this was a Phalanx base,” Henry muttered. Brand shushed him. “If this is a Phalanx base,” he continued, “then where are all the Phalanx? From what I remember, it’s not a solitary operation.”
Sydren slipped through the doors. “He’s right,” one of the other men agreed. “Phalanx are normally crawling all over the place.”
“Maybe,” Brand suggested, a tone of annoyance in her voice, “they’re waiting for some idiot to talk loudly enough to get noticed. Then they can take our bodies and-“
Sydren made a noise and took two steps backward before falling to his side. Three armed guards rushed out of the lab, firing wildly. “Ambusssh!”
Brand swore. In a flurry of movement, she and her men scattered, finding safe places to shoot from. Henry, caught off-guard, was the only one remaining in the middle of the corridor. The guards advanced and he tried to fire at them, only to remember that he was a terrible shot. He dropped his gun. “I need cover fire!” he called, charging the guards.
Brand ran out of the doorway she used as cover and into the middle of the hall, sending a hail of shots on all sides of him. “This is not the way we do things!” she shouted.
Henry swiped at one of the two remaining guards and came away with a handful of machinery. The guard backed away, turning on his heel to run, but Henry tackled him to the ground. With a twist and a pull, he ripped the Phalanx’s head off its shoulders. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the other guard move, then-
Something seared across his chest and shoulder, blindingly painful. Henry roared and fell backwards, clutching at the tatters of his uniform. He could see his heartbeat on the backs of his eyes, and with every pulse his uniform got wetter. Darkness tunneled his vision, but he saw the last guard fall. There was a rush of legs that passed by him.
“Don’t let them smash the-! Respirators on! Now, now, now!” A plastic mask was shoved roughly onto his face, then secured in the back. He blinked, his sight clearing momentarily, and saw Brand’s men put a respirator to Sydren’s face. Brand took something small and round from one of the pouches on her belt and threw it into the lab, throwing the glass doors shut.
Then, a hand in his. Leaning over him, the tips of her hair tickled his forehead. “Hank-Henry-I have to-the pathogen’s loose-“ She took off a glove. Her hand glowed blue. She leaned closer, their respirators nearly touching. “This is going to hurt. A lot.”
A new pain, so hot he could smell his flesh cook through the mask. He struggled against her, thrashing his head. Her hand tightened in his. He closed his eyes, breathing as shallowly as he could. She pinched together the slice in his chest, burning it closed. He felt a hot trickle on his fur-parts of the uniform were melting onto him. “How-how much more-?” he gasped, his yellow eyes searching her green ones desperately.
She withdrew her other hand from his grip to smooth back his hair. She left it at the back of his head, fingers twining deep into blue fur. “Almost done, you’re doing great.” The pain receded. “There.” She held her hand up as the blue faded, then reached into another pocket to withdraw a needle much like the ones they inoculated themselves with. “Painkillers.” Worry clouded her eyes. “I don’t know if I’m steady enough to-“
“Just do it,” he groaned.
She jabbed the needle deep into the fresh scar, making him cry out, and depressed the plunger. The pain dulled. “Can you walk?” Henry looked up at her, his vision clearing. Somehow her hand had made it back into his.
“I think so,” he said, getting up with some help. He looked around. “Where are the others?”
Brand put his arm around his shoulders and hers around his waist. He didn’t need the help, but he didn’t resist. “They brought Sydren back to the ship. We’re retreating and detonating this place remotely.” They entered the loading bay and one of the men held the ship door open for them. Brand helped Henry into his seat and strapped him in. “Sydren, what’s your status?”
“Ssstill alive,” Sydren replied as the bay doors opened. “Though without the apparent medical care McCoy recssseived….”
Brand held up a hand, which glowed. “You want a big honkin’ burn scar across your chest, too? I could arrange that.”
“I wasss referring to the painkillersss. Do you carry more than one dossse on you?”
Brand handed him a fresh hypodermic, keeping her eyes on the starfield ahead of them. “Fine. Do it your own damn self.”
Sydren turned to Henry. “And you, McCoy? How are you faring?”
Henry looked down at the scar on his chest. Pieces of singed hair and uniform were embedded in his melted flesh. He wondered about the possibility of infection, Phalanx or otherwise. “I could be better,” he admitted.
Sydren smiled, and for the first time it appeared to be genuine. “If you think thisss isss bad, you’re going to hate the disssinfectant ssshowers.”
“Oh, joy.”
Part five will be up soon. Five is the first section where I have very little at the time of posting the previous section; usually I work about a "chapter" ahead. By then S.W.O.R.D. #1 will be out and it will invalidate half of the events and characterization I've been working on! Hooray!
On with the show.
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The infinite depth of the stars as they stretched out from the reinforced windows on the Peak gave Henry a sense of vertigo if he stared for too long. Spanning the entire wall of the corridor and curved slightly outward, when Henry came close enough that the starfield closed in on his periphery, he was overcome with a sense of falling. He touched the window to ground himself.
Even here, it was hard to get his mind on the present. The lure of solving the mysteries surrounding Brand kept him locked in his own mind, reviewing what he knew about her over and over. If giving him a series of riddles about her personal life to unravel was a part of Brand’s plans to keep him interested in her… but no, she backed off when he told her so. Keeping secrets was a part of who she was, which made Henry feel better. If encouraging him to figure her out was a move on Brand’s part to get him in bed, Henry would have a much harder time resisting.
He frowned. His mind was going places he didn’t give it permission to think about. He needed another distraction. Eyeing the corridor, he noticed a sign to the side of a stairwell, announcing that the cafeteria was directly below where he stood now. His stomach cramped with hunger, remembering that the last time he ate was yesterday. Imagining pre-packaged astronaut food made him wish he thought far enough ahead to bring leftovers from the bar.
Sniffing the air, Henry was greeted with a pleasant surprise-the smell of cooking food. He took the stairs two or three at once, all thoughts extinguished by the possibility of good food. Bursting into the cafeteria through the double doors at the bottom of the stairwell, he was immediately drawn to the serving tables, where every food imaginable, from Earth and elsewhere, stewed under heat lamps. He grabbed a plate and went to work on heaping it with a little bit of everything. He made a special effort to include foods of alien origins on his dish, deciding he would be a philistine to limit himself to solely human foods. Cooking was an art, after all.
Once he was satisfied by his selection, Henry scanned the cafeteria tables for a place to sit. A sense of uneasiness struck him-he may have kept to himself in the X-Mansion lab, but he was never unpopular. Here, there were clearly defined social groups, and Brand did a good job of making sure he didn’t fit in anywhere but with her. He spotted a half-empty table and approached the seat at the far end, but the interest in the eyes of the people on the other side encouraged him to sit among them. Might as well start making up for the damage Brand did to his reputation as soon as possible.
He offered his hand to the first person who met his gaze. “Hello,” he said, trying to keep his tone light and friendly. Years of new students at the academy made him used to introductions, but that was a situation where he was in a position of clear authority. “I’m new here, and I don’t believe we’ve met. My name is-“
“McCoy, right?” The man he spoke took Henry’s hand in his own, pumping it with amusement. “Saw you come through the map room yesterday. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Oh, God,” Henry sighed, withdrawing his hand and adjusting his glasses. “Whatever you may hear, I can assure you of its falsehood. I’m not that kind of person.”
The man grinned at his companions. “Actually, I meant the fact that we have a genuine superhero joining the team. But if you really want to talk about the other rumors….”
Tension eased itself from Henry’s shoulders and he allowed himself a smile. “I’ve quite had my fill of hearing what latest stories are being told about me,” he admitted. “But I don’t believe I caught your names….”
“I’m Johnson,” the man replied. Pointing to the woman next to him, he said, “This is Brown. Our friend over here,” he said, indicating the alien who sat across from Henry, who had skin like an otter, “doesn’t have a name we can pronounce, so we just call him Smith.”
“Pleased to meet all of you. I….“ He stopped when he saw they were staring. He checked the fur around his mouth; he didn’t have anything on his face, so what was-
“McCoy. Your presssence isss required.”
The cheeriness Henry fooled himself into thinking had formed between him and his new companions evaporated with the appearance of Sydren. He turned to grudgingly face the red alien. “I haven’t even had my first bite,” he sighed, indicating his full plate. “This could wait fifteen more minutes.”
“You’re living on the Peak for a reassson,” Sydren retored. “If you exssspected time to yourssself, you ssshould have requesssted to live on our ground bassse.”
“Let me get a container for this, at least.” He gave his acquaintances a sorry glance. “Could I fool myself into hoping we’ll have time to talk later?”
Johnson nodded. “We’ll be here. Have fun!”
Sydren had a quick stride that Henry found hard to match. Considering the ease with which he moved, Henry guessed that Sydren’s homeworld either had a denser atmosphere or stronger gravity.
“Actually,” Sydren said, head forward like he was speaking to the air in front of him, “my people are sssemi-aquatic. It’sss much easssier to move around when you’re not waissst-deep in water.”
Right, Henry reminded himself. Psychic.
“’Empath’ would be a better term to ussse,” Sydren corrected him. “I sssense thingsss, I don’t read mindsss.” Henry sent an annoyed thought his way, and Sydren shook his head. “I don’t hate you, McCoy. I jussst believe our illussstrious director made a missstake to hire from outssside Sss.W.O.R.D. rather than promote sssomeone internally. Nothing persssonal.”
“Forgive me if I take your words with a grain of salt. You two don’t exactly get along.”
“No, we don’t,” Sydren agreed, “but we ssstill work well together. The sssame could be sssaid of you.” He smirked. “Ssshe can be a bitch, but ssshe’s very professsional.”
Henry’s annoyance rose. “She may be a touch disagreeable, but with the way you and the rest of the crew act, she’s in good company.”
Sydren shook his head in amusement. “You have no need to defend her actionsss. Jussst because you’ve entertained the sssame thoughtsss about her that go through the headsss of half the crew-“
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Henry sputtered. “I find this topic of conversation highly inappropriate!”
Sydren snickered. “Of courssse you do. The funny thing isss, while ssshe may be on the thoughts of every human male on the Peak, you are the firssst who hasss a chancssse with her. Or, ssshould I sssay, had.”
Henry’s mind went back to the pictures of Brand with the aliens. “What-“
Sydren interrupted him by opening a door at the end of the hall. “Here we are. Map room.” He motioned for Henry to enter.
Brand leaned over a computer display, all attention in the room focused on her next move. She was still in her tank top and dark pants, and her tousled hair brushed her shoulders. For her to be in the middle of a meeting now meant she could not have gotten more than an hour of sleep. The bruise on her cheek and eyebrow was gone, but purple shadows deepened the circles under her eyes.
She looked up, and hardly glanced over Sydren before locking on Henry. Even as she kept her gaze set on him, her face erased itself of any emotion. It was like watching an invisible artist erase any shadows or character lines that might give her away. “What’s he doing here?”
The sly flicker of Sydren’s yellow eyes going back and forth was enough to tip Henry off that something was not right. “He’sss a part of the team now, isssn’t he? He ssshould be here when sssomething comesss up.”
A muscle twitched in Brand’s jaw. She looked at him, but her focus was elsewhere, internal. Henry was the first to avert his gaze and it snapped her out of her thoughts. “Fine,” she said, turning back to the monitor. “Recognize these guys?”
Henry winced at the display of twisted, skeletal creatures. “Phalanx.” That brought back memories.
She nodded, face still turned to the screen. The curve of her cheek was outlined in light, almost invisible, but he swore he saw a green eye flicker in his direction. “Been following this group for the better part of a year. It’s mostly cut and dry monitoring. We’ve been trying to trace this group to the source of their techno-organic infection. But recently they’ve been working on something new-an airborne pathogen. Set it off in a crowded city and you’ll have millions of new Phalanx by the next day.”
“Why have you been waiting to take them down?” Henry demanded. “If they’re as much of a threat as you say, then how can you content yourselves with just watching?”
Brand turned and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. Her demeanor was not as calm as her face. “Do you have any idea how big space is, professor? Maybe you think it’s easy to chase small fry around the solar system, let alone the galaxy.” Her tone was venomous. “In the big leagues, McCoy, every problem we deal with directly is a matter of planetary safety. That’s why we often can’t catch the smaller threats until they balloon into big ones.” She turned to glare at him full-force. “Got any other brilliant suggestions about how I should run the show?”
The force of her gaze set him back a step. The fury in her eyes, he knew, wasn’t just a reaction to his latest comment, but the result of the slow build-up that began as soon as she arrived in the bar yesterday. He arranged his expression so he looked more deferential than defiant. “All right, what are we going to do about it?”
“We,” she said, indicating Sydren, herself, and a couple other men, “are going to locate and visit the headquarters where they’ve developed this stuff and do a little housecleaning. You,” she continued, pointing to Henry, “are going to watch.”
“Brand-“
“No. You are still officially in your ‘training’ period. I can’t have a liability on a mission.”
Ignoring her anger in favor of some of his own, Henry stepped forward, coming nearly chest-to-chest with her. He was maybe six inches taller than her, but he was much larger, and used it to his advantage as he tried to loom. “I have never been a liability to you! Every time we’ve partnered up, I’ve always been a benefit! I’m a trained X-Man, a scientist of highest caliber, and I’m what you told me you needed-someone to question you! That’s what I’m doing now, isn’t it?”
Getting close to Brand made him realize how much heat she gave off. Whether it was her anger or her temperature, she was-literally-very hot. With the heat of her gaze focused directly on him, Henry remembered too late that he would never win a staring contest with her. He was intense, but she surpassed him easily. Out of the corner of his eyes, Henry could see the tips of her hair tremble with fury. If he kept staring, would she kill him? Or kiss him?
“I feel I mussst agree with Dr. McCoy,” Sydren interjected, breaking the tension. They both blinked. “Having a ssscientist on our team would be… handy.”
Brand shot Sydren a look of loathing. “I guess I’m outnumbered, then. Welcome to the team, McCoy. Grab a suit and let’s go.”
Exiting the changing room wearing his new S.W.O.R.D. issued uniform-slash-spacesuit, Henry headed to the shuttle bay. Brand and her crew gathered near a five-man craft. Feeling apologetic, Henry turned to her as they loaded in. “What do you think?” he asked, keeping his tone light.
Brand barely glanced his way before getting into her seat. A moment passed as the engine revved before she grunted, “S’better than your X-uniform.”
Henry brightened. He didn’t want her to hate him. “And why, pray tell, is that? I was always quite fond of the superhero costumes.”
Brand shrugged, looking sourly out the cockpit window as the ship left the bay. “Never saw the appeal of running around in my underwear.”
“I never-“
“Oh yes you did!” She jabbed a finger in his direction, but her anger was a touch amused. “You wore your little black man-panties with an X on them for years! What the hell possessed you to think that was flattering?!”
Sydren and one of the men tittered to themselves and Henry felt the corners of his mouth turn. “Oh come now, you’ve seen how hairy I am!” He put his hand over hers to prove it. “Any clothes this covering become impossibly hot.”
Her passive expression became less forced and she turned her hand upwards so her fingers brushed his. “Hairy palms.”
He grinned. “Only one girlfriend since I turned blue.” He patted her hand, fingers momentarily entwining. Her hand closed and jumped into her lap. She looked away. His smile disappeared-he thought he was getting somewhere. “Abigail….”
She pointed to a screen. “Ceres.” Her tone became stiff as she addressed the rest of the cabin. “Largest asteroid in the belt, and this is where the intel says they’re developing the pathogen.” She reached under her seat, withdrawing a black case. She opened it, revealing a set of shapes embedded in foam. She assembled them into a gun and offered it to Henry.
He took it after some prompting. “I don’t normally use these… and where would I put it?”
Brand pushed her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose so she could better inspect Henry’s belt. “It’s the holster on your-oh, you put it on wrong.” Henry tugged on his belt uselessly as she leaned over, turning the holster around on its loop. “Stop squirming.”
“I think I put the whole utility belt on wrong.”
Her hands slapped his out of the way as they climbed to his middle to readjust the buckle. “Yes, you did. If you’d just hold still….” It clicked. “There.” She slid the gun into its holster, which now sat snug against Henry’s hip.
He checked the status of his utility belt, finding that it was indeed properly fitted. When Henry turned back to Brand, he found her assembling an even bigger gun. “Is that one also for me?”
“No,” Brand said, snapping the final piece into place, “it’s for me.”
“Incoming on the Ceres base,” one of Brand’s men announced.
“You boys ready?” Brand asked, snapping together a second gun. “Just destroying their equipment will only set them back a couple months. We need to take out anyone that looks like they’re in charge, but leave a couple alive so we can see if they return to the source of their infection.”
The craft swept into an empty bay, the doors closing behind it. Sydren checked something on his monitor. “Air presssure isss Earth normal.”
Brand unstrapped herself from the seat. “Good. Try not to hit any of the life support systems while we’re in there and this’ll be a breeze.” She shot Henry a glance. “Think you can work the buckles on the seatbelt, or do I have to do that for you too?”
“Ha, ha,” he grumbled.
The doors on either side of the cockpit hissed open. “I sssense sssomething very wrong,” Sydren murmured, opening a door with care. He swiveled his head to either side, looking over the docking bay with a trained eye.
“Then we proceed with caution,” Brand replied. “And that’s official. If any of you die, it’s not my fault.”
“How comforting.”
“Shut it, McCoy. The moment we’re out the door, I don’t want to hear a word. We’re ghosts.” The two other men whispered something between themselves. “That goes the same for you,” Brand snapped. She wore a gun on either hip and held a third in her hand.
“I don’t underssstand,” Sydren muttered. “They’re here, yesss, but they’re hard to pinpoint… they’re all… waiting for sssomething….”
“Then let’s make sure that something doesn’t happen.” Looking around at her team one more time, Brand set her jaw and opened the door fully. She signaled for them to wait as she snuck around the side of the ship, taking cover behind a stack of crates. They followed her, footsteps echoing eerily throughout the bay. When they were all gathered near the entrance to the base, Brand checked in with Sydren. “What’s their positions?” she hissed.
“The onesss we’re after are in the ssscience lab. There are few othersss on bassse right now,” Sydren whispered back.
“Good enough. Can you navigate?”
Sydren nodded and straightened from behind a wall, using his long neck to peer into the corridor. “Follow me.” Guns drawn, they made their way down the empty hallway towards a set of glass double-doors. Sydren motioned to the doors and stalked towards them.
“You said this was a Phalanx base,” Henry muttered. Brand shushed him. “If this is a Phalanx base,” he continued, “then where are all the Phalanx? From what I remember, it’s not a solitary operation.”
Sydren slipped through the doors. “He’s right,” one of the other men agreed. “Phalanx are normally crawling all over the place.”
“Maybe,” Brand suggested, a tone of annoyance in her voice, “they’re waiting for some idiot to talk loudly enough to get noticed. Then they can take our bodies and-“
Sydren made a noise and took two steps backward before falling to his side. Three armed guards rushed out of the lab, firing wildly. “Ambusssh!”
Brand swore. In a flurry of movement, she and her men scattered, finding safe places to shoot from. Henry, caught off-guard, was the only one remaining in the middle of the corridor. The guards advanced and he tried to fire at them, only to remember that he was a terrible shot. He dropped his gun. “I need cover fire!” he called, charging the guards.
Brand ran out of the doorway she used as cover and into the middle of the hall, sending a hail of shots on all sides of him. “This is not the way we do things!” she shouted.
Henry swiped at one of the two remaining guards and came away with a handful of machinery. The guard backed away, turning on his heel to run, but Henry tackled him to the ground. With a twist and a pull, he ripped the Phalanx’s head off its shoulders. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the other guard move, then-
Something seared across his chest and shoulder, blindingly painful. Henry roared and fell backwards, clutching at the tatters of his uniform. He could see his heartbeat on the backs of his eyes, and with every pulse his uniform got wetter. Darkness tunneled his vision, but he saw the last guard fall. There was a rush of legs that passed by him.
“Don’t let them smash the-! Respirators on! Now, now, now!” A plastic mask was shoved roughly onto his face, then secured in the back. He blinked, his sight clearing momentarily, and saw Brand’s men put a respirator to Sydren’s face. Brand took something small and round from one of the pouches on her belt and threw it into the lab, throwing the glass doors shut.
Then, a hand in his. Leaning over him, the tips of her hair tickled his forehead. “Hank-Henry-I have to-the pathogen’s loose-“ She took off a glove. Her hand glowed blue. She leaned closer, their respirators nearly touching. “This is going to hurt. A lot.”
A new pain, so hot he could smell his flesh cook through the mask. He struggled against her, thrashing his head. Her hand tightened in his. He closed his eyes, breathing as shallowly as he could. She pinched together the slice in his chest, burning it closed. He felt a hot trickle on his fur-parts of the uniform were melting onto him. “How-how much more-?” he gasped, his yellow eyes searching her green ones desperately.
She withdrew her other hand from his grip to smooth back his hair. She left it at the back of his head, fingers twining deep into blue fur. “Almost done, you’re doing great.” The pain receded. “There.” She held her hand up as the blue faded, then reached into another pocket to withdraw a needle much like the ones they inoculated themselves with. “Painkillers.” Worry clouded her eyes. “I don’t know if I’m steady enough to-“
“Just do it,” he groaned.
She jabbed the needle deep into the fresh scar, making him cry out, and depressed the plunger. The pain dulled. “Can you walk?” Henry looked up at her, his vision clearing. Somehow her hand had made it back into his.
“I think so,” he said, getting up with some help. He looked around. “Where are the others?”
Brand put his arm around his shoulders and hers around his waist. He didn’t need the help, but he didn’t resist. “They brought Sydren back to the ship. We’re retreating and detonating this place remotely.” They entered the loading bay and one of the men held the ship door open for them. Brand helped Henry into his seat and strapped him in. “Sydren, what’s your status?”
“Ssstill alive,” Sydren replied as the bay doors opened. “Though without the apparent medical care McCoy recssseived….”
Brand held up a hand, which glowed. “You want a big honkin’ burn scar across your chest, too? I could arrange that.”
“I wasss referring to the painkillersss. Do you carry more than one dossse on you?”
Brand handed him a fresh hypodermic, keeping her eyes on the starfield ahead of them. “Fine. Do it your own damn self.”
Sydren turned to Henry. “And you, McCoy? How are you faring?”
Henry looked down at the scar on his chest. Pieces of singed hair and uniform were embedded in his melted flesh. He wondered about the possibility of infection, Phalanx or otherwise. “I could be better,” he admitted.
Sydren smiled, and for the first time it appeared to be genuine. “If you think thisss isss bad, you’re going to hate the disssinfectant ssshowers.”
“Oh, joy.”