Chapter 18 – Crownless King

POV- Andy

While I may not have the proper telepathy of the Frosts, or the superhuman senses of Wolverine, tracking Sage was one of the easiest tasks imaginable. She moved from her room to her nest and back again, occasionally stopping in between for food. In the glass-faced room that overlooks one of the hologram-modified training rooms, Sage sat calmly in her seat, processing information at a speed possible only for machines.

"Hello, Sage. Just wondering how your search for incriminating evidence between Ryan and Reeva is going?"

"Reeva hasn't been spotted in contact with Benedict Ryan, which limits the potential evidence."

Releasing the breath I'd been holding, I rub my head in my hands. "Sage, you really are shit at lying. There's no way you couldn't keep up with either of them, which makes me wonder how it took so long for you to find evidence of his involvement as well." Freezing her in place, I step forward, my anger building as I look at the computer specialist. "Now Sage dear, I'm going to bring the Frosts in here and take a peek into your head, so if you wouldn't mind waiting here for a moment."

Pulling out my phone, I send a group text to the sisters, "Need you to take a peek into her head for a moment please." Wheeling Sage back away from the computer, I take a look through the categorically then chronologically ordered files.

"So well organised, thank you for that." Almost nothing saved to the computer's hard drive would be useless, so when I found a file labelled important figures, and then found Benedict Ryan's file, all I had to do was skim past his involvement with the purifiers to a folder within the original labelled 'co-op.' Within, were pictures of Ryan and Reeva, each conversation in dingy places far from other people, yet not far enough from satellites and the occasional CCTV. Not only were there photos, but recorded evidence of the two talking, and handing each other files. No sound could be heard, and cleaning up the videos enough to lip-read was near impossible, but there was a trio of junkies I could ask, if not just ask the Guerras for. 'They MIGHT know someone, but the brothers would probably be easier.'

The dates of some of the 'Benedict Ryan is a raging purifier,' photos also were collected and saved weeks before the Frosts came and told me about finding proof, which means Sage was cautious of the Frosts as much as she was everyone else. 'She isn't necessarily AGAINST me, but she will hide important information and evidence so that she is the only one with access to it, thus making her feel safe and needed within a group.

Within a minute all three of the sisters had made it to the room, all wondering why I would need their abilities. "What's going on with her?" Sophie asked, noticing Sage hadn't moved anything more than her eyes the whole time they'd been in the room.

"She's bound, and will remain that way." Walking over to the computer, I pull up the collection of photos of Reeva and Ryan talking and handing over files, including the night before the bank robbery. "Here's the evidence you'd asked her to find, dating back a few months. She also had evidence of Ryan meeting with Purifiers sitting there in the files." The Frosts were split in their emotions, Sophie shocked, Esme concerned and Phoebe seething at the bound computer specialist. While there was no doubt some level of blackmail material she had stored away, there was nothing she could threaten me or Lauren with, as all recording devices were searched for and destroyed whenever they were found nearby.

"You fucking traitor!" Phoebe spat; striking Sage as hard as she could. I had temporarily released the constriction on her victim's head to prevent her injury, but had to physically hold her back from continuing.

"Phoebes, I need to know if Reeva knows that I know, and plan to kill her." Hugging her from behind, pinning her arms down, I do my best to console her. "It's not your fault Phoebes, but we need her alive until you can find the information," I say over her shoulder, using my body rather than my powers to restrain her. 'It's impersonal to use my powers, and I need to show I'm here for her.' Kissing her cheek stops her from struggling against my grip, and the adrenaline seeps from her, as she instead glares at Sage, rather than attempting to punch a hole through her.

"Sorry Andy…for trusting her with such an important task," I hear from the tired body in front of me, her hair hiding her expressions from all but her own sisters.

"You weren't the only ones to trust her," Sophie says softly, placing her hand on her sister's other shoulder. "We should look through her mind though. Andy's right that we need to know if she told Reeva, and about any fail-safes that we can have her destroy before she dies." I watched as the three encircled the brunette, eyes glowing in a beautiful blue, phone in hand.

"Hey Marcos, don't tell Lorna this just yet. Just found evidence that Reeva was working with Benedict Ryan, who was leading some of the local purifier chapters. By the time you get back, Sage, who hid the evidence from us and the queen bitch will be removed. Enjoy your time with the MU."

*Lauren, where are you?*

*With Mom and Dad in their room why? I could feel your anger before, what's up?*

*Check the room for explosives or cameras quickly. We found the evidence. Sage hid it.*

*Shit. I'll protect the two of them, don't worry.*

*Keep a barrier over the door, just in case. Oh, and if Dad starts getting headaches or clutching his wrist, move them both to the training room. His powers are…corrosive*

Esme looked up first, "She knows you don't like her, but Sage was waiting to see which side would be most useful for her, and willing to protect her. She decided Reeva was more likely to need her than you, so she hid the evidence." She then returned to controlling the computer in human form, removing the automatic, time-based failsafe she had stored, which would paint me as a mass-murdering, human-hating psychopath with no control of my powers or emotions. 'Basically, a Magneto with less control, I guess.'

"Thank you all for that. Though, I'm not sure how much of a difference it would have made."

The three sisters stood in front of me, before Esme sucked in a deep breath, straightening her back and speaking out. "You were right about the two of them, and we swore to put our faith in you, 100%. Though the other two seem more interested in YOU than your cause, we will work for you."

"From this point," Sophie added.

Phoebe was the last to speak, and unlike the formal Esme and quiet Sophie, bore a bright smile, despite being a raging mess merely 15 minutes ago. "'Til the day we die."

"You don't know just how amazing that was to watch," I chuckled, "basically a proposal."

Creating a small explosion inside Sage's heart, damaging only the heart and the vessels connected to it, I leave her in the room, waiting for her to die before my eyes leave her body. 'What a shame, she was so good at her job. Too bad I can't trust her at all.'

"Thank you… for trusting me. Now I need to go remove the twisty girl and Reeva."

'Eeny Meenie, miney moe,' I sang in my head, deciding who to kill first. 'Reeva it is, which I guess makes sense since Rebecca's still in the spinning prison of dizziness. Like a theme park ride but with no way off.'

"You girls can stay here if you want, I'll just remove the pest." Taking a look at the video cameras that captured every room in the building except Reeva's, and the bedrooms of my family and the girls, thanks to my and Lauren's efforts, I could assume she was in her own room. 'Elevator hasn't been used, nor has she accessed the emergency stairway, which was blocked off anyway, as it required proof of identity to access. Dumb idea to have the stairs, in the first place. Who was ever going to walk up sixty-eight floors every day?'

Making my way to the most secure and best-decorated room in the building, there was little effort made to conceal what I was doing. I'd never approached her room before, nor had Lauren, which made legitimate reasons for visiting few.

*Knock Knock*

"Reeva, I had a concern about tonight's mission. Reeva. REEVA!" 'Well that obviously wasn't going to work,' "Fuck it," I groaned, ripping the section of wall the door was bolted into free, pushing the door aside with a sweep of my arm.

"So you've chosen to take over have you?"

"Similar to what you did to your old Inner Circle really. I have concerns over the direction you're steering us, and your ideas have little to no concern as to the after-effects of your missions."

"I want a mutant homeland t-"

"Same, but I'm not going to release rapists and murderers without a single glance at their files. I would give the murderers retrials perhaps, but you would release them ALL. The sane, and the crazy, all flooding back in a wave of chaos. That would be your legacy."

"If this is about one mission, we could at least discuss it," she said calmly, though she was glancing around the room with a hand behind her back.

"It's mainly that, your annoying attitude, yes I know I'm a hypocrite and the fact you work with purifiers."

"W-what?" she stammered, seeming genuinely surprised anyone had found her out.

"Sage had some folders on her computer of you and Benedict Ryan passing files over, talking and other collaborative things."

"You can't believe them-"

"What are you stalling for? You know I don't trust anything out of your mouth anyway, and you have nothing that can hurt me."

"I'm not going to hurt YOU. You think you're so fucking clever, don't you? When I saw you walking towards my door, I sent Fade to comply with a simple task. I could have asked him to kill the Frost girls you love so much, but there's the risk he's sensed or can't complete the job in time. But your family on the other hand-"

"Is protected by Lauren. Try again."

"Arrogant as always. Even through a barrier, I have ways of killing your family." 'Fade would be blocked directly by the shields, so it has to be something else. Gas? No, she can constrict the gas back into the vent, or disperse it through a broken window. Something that could affect everything inside the barrier, maybe? But she doesn't have-'

"Rebecca," I hissed, knowing full well what that complete psycho was willing to do and capable of doing to an entire room from outside the room, without vision or affecting the doors. 'I should have enough time if I leave now to get in her way at least.'

"Correct, Andy. Now have fun looking at your sister's mangled coAAAARHH" Crushing the joints in her shoulders, knees, wrists and ankles into a mangled, torn mess, but without causing major bleeds, I slam her head into the metal bed frame, gently sending her to sleep. I would have made the effort to muzzle her instead, but I wasn't going to waste any more time while Rebecca made her way to my family. I leave the stringless marionette in her room, propelling myself down corridors to make up for lost time.

A scream fills the air, stopping with a sickening crack and I curse myself for wasting so much time with Reeva. It doesn't sound like Lauren, but there's no way to be sure with the level of soundproofing and acoustics in this place.

Turning another corner, I spot Twist, otherwise known as Rebecca, ripping her entire body to shreds before she can even turn around to face me properly. Blasting a kinetic wave at waist height, above the two fallen bodies. A loud groan slips from the hallway, and Fade slams into the far wall. Ripping apart Fade was the work of moments, as I ran and slid to the blonde body on the floor of the hallway before our parent's room. The good news is that it wasn't Lauren, but the blonde hair and long pale body terrified me still. I may not love any of the Frosts the way I did my sister, but there was no doubt that both Sophie and Phoebe were my closest friends. My only friends really, besides Marcos.

The right arm and leg were twisted, and blood covered the side of her head as if it had been slammed into the stained wall with great force, leaving her unconscious on the floor in a nightmare-inducing scene. While unconscious, I couldn't tell which of the sisters it was. Calling out as loud as I could for the Frosts, their footsteps came swiftly, though they both looked pale and were sobbing. Leaping over Fade and Twist's shredded bodies, the girls knelt next to her, and based on the two awake, I knew who lay in front of me. The girls sobbed quietly, with no words said, though their eyes were glowing blue as tears streamed down their panic-stricken faces. The girls experienced the same type of empathy as Lauren and I, which meant the two felt the same sharp agony as Sophie did, but without the physical injuries. The fact they were breathless and crying was no surprise, even without the scare of potentially losing their sister.

"I'm so sorry Sophie. I'm sorry I couldn't stop it," I get out, my guilt stopping me from getting more words out as my breath hitched. Looking across at the two kneeling blondes, I want to comfort the girls, but I worry they blame me for her injury. 'I need to. They've already lost sisters before, and now they almost lost another, their youngest living sister.

I can feel the memories of my dealing with Reeva spring to mind, and the race to stop Twist. When the bodies of Twist and Fade hit the floor, ripped and torn the feeling of being pulled to a memory ceased, and Esme looked up at me, her eyes red and puffy. "It's not your fault either, Andy. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," she quietly said, her voice weak from the strain. While I wasn't pleased with Esme looking through my memories, she didn't try to hide it, and she was unable to ask her sister that lay broken on the floor.

Leaving the girls to contact whoever the Inner Circle had been in contact with for their medical needs, I get up and pull the blood from my clothes. Not wanting to burden the girls with my own thoughts I swept my arm across the hall, cleansing the room of the blood and torn limbs and organs that had sprayed over the floor and walls.

*Sophie's injured, get mom here now*

*Oh God, no. I was scared to ask, but it was one of them.* Lauren was never quite as close to them as she was Lorna, but she had grown to spend time with Sophie and her sisters, who had been less standoffish in the last few weeks. *Andy, I'm so sorry* I could feel her emotions reflecting my own, and was sure she had begun to cry while calling for medics.

Taking the bundle of flesh and blood to the rooftop along with Sage's body, I funnel my guilt and anger into the remains, shredding each body as small as I could as my vision turned misty. Eventually, the pieces became so small I wasn't even able to discern which piece came from who, mere specks of what remained and I burned that, letting the smoke carry off into the sky.

'They almost lost their sister,' the thought crashed over me as I realised, I was mere moments from losing Lauren. If Twist just warped the room with no warning, there wasn't much she could have done to stop it. If Reeva had bought another 10 seconds, or if Sophie wasn't too damn kind, visiting my family at that time… 'I would have lost her.'

Guilt was overtaken again by rage, and I stalk to Reeva's room again, using her own bedsheets to gag the screamer, thick enough that it stretched her jaw and made breathing an effort. It was in this state that I dragged her body into the main room, still unconscious for the moment, though the sensation of her mangled joints dragging over the floor was undoubtedly painful. Seated in the end chair of the low table, I wait for the emergency medics.

'Wait, why am I trusting the retarded Inner Circle to have decent medics?'

"John, do you know any mutant healers? Soon as possible." I sent a similar text to Carmen, both of whom sent a reply that they would ask around.

The phone rang in my hand and a smile grew, "Hello Carmen."

"One of the mutants that worked for my father a few years ago could help others regenerate whole limbs, so as long as it isn't anything vital, he could perhaps help, though he refused to work for me after my father passed."

"Is he still nearby? I'll get John and Marcos to bring him."

"He did like Marcos, so that might help a little. Are you injured?"

I sighed deeply, "No, but I took over the mutant group I was a part of, and the old leader released a psycho who twisted the limbs of one of my allies."

"Oh. Did you want me to gift you a throne for your tower? I had you followed back a while ago."

"Sure, so long as it's comfortable and not hideous. And if you hadn't tailed me, I would have been somewhat offended Carmen. Send Marcos the address."

Then explaining the situation to Marcos, he drags John to bring the old man back to me, arriving only 40 minutes later, suggesting Clarisse helped somewhat. The old guy was brought to Sophie, and thankfully, there was no twisting of anything above the elbow and knee, due to Rebecca's sadistic streak no doubt. 'The only reason she didn't suffer for longer and far worse is that Fade knocked her unconscious.' He placed her under a heavy anaesthetic before cutting off the arm and leg above the joints with a surgical saw. The room they were in looked like an abattoir but when he left finished, collapsing into a chair, her limbs were back to normal, or at least they looked it.

"So which one of you is in charge?" he asked snootily.

"That would be me," I said, still looking at Sophie's restored state. She would be brought to a regular hospital now so that her organs could be checked, but for now, she could rest.

"Funny kid, who is it?" his dry voice rasped.

"I wasn't joking. I'm the strongest here, and now own the Guerra family, who are expanding into what was the Reaper's territory, and head the Hellfire Club. Andrew Von Strucker, thanks for answering the call."

"That runaway brat Marcos wasn't lying then. I guess even I can be surprised. You can pay me in cash or digital transfer if you'd prefer. I told Marcos, but as a sign of goodwill, I'll only charge $ 20,000."

"$10,000 per limb and without waiting for months of rehab and being left with scars. I'll have the money sent to you. What's your name by the way? I feel bad not asking."

"Eric Walker, but professionally I'm known as Healer, for obvious reasons."

~~~

Sophie was taken to hospital that afternoon, leaving the rest of us in the near-empty tower. My family came out to join us for dinner, and the silver and black throne John had carried up on a second trip was comfy as hell. I could sense Lauren wanted to make a joke about it, but there was a hanging cloud of negativity in the room while I waited for the results of the MRI and X-ray. John and Marcos were upset at Sage's betrayal, but now at least, we had a clear path to tread, and without Reeva, I could hire whoever I wanted, without the need to hire dangerous and psychologically unstable people…Lorna, and Lauren not included.

The mutiny wasn't as clean as I'd hoped, but the fact remained that we had succeeded. I was now the ruler of the Hellfire Club, and thus the 'Black King,' just as Kilgore and Emma Frost had been before me. A crownless king, but a king nonetheless. 'I just hope the rest of my conquest and reign go smoother, though I bloody doubt it.'