A New Mission, Part I

Posted on Mon Jun 19th, 2023 @ 1:21am by First Lieutenant Bethany Harrison & Private Mattias Tonelly & General Dyami Bentley (Tribal : Bent Leaf)
Edited on on Mon Jun 19th, 2023 @ 1:33am

Mission: The Mutant Underground
Location: Unknown
Timeline: Present Day

After speaking with Carson, Bethany made her way to the cafeteria in the building, where she had agreed to meet back up with Dyami and Matty. She moved like she was in a bit of a haze, absently, though gracefully, avoiding people and objects in her path. It took her a moment to realize that she had reached her destination, and she paused, looking around to find the pair.

Once the green-eyed brawler spotted them, she walked over and sat down, gripping the folder in her hands tightly enough to be creasing it. Then the pale young woman sat her hands down on her lap, looked at the folder, through it, and said, her voice quiet, distant, “I’m ready to leave when you are.”

Mattias watched Bethany approach their table. He gave her a soft, supportive smile as their eyes briefly met.

Dyami watched the young brawler as she approached the table. Pushing a large tray of empty plates to the side he commented, “You look like you need some food. Hungry? It is my treat.” He then motioned grandly as if they were in a high class restaurant, rather than an office building cafeteria.

Bethany actually gave a bit of a dark chuckle, shaking her head, but didn’t look up. “I forgot that we filed all of the paperwork the day before...'' she paused and sighed heavily, her jaw clenching for a brief moment. Then she continued, rambling a bit, her voice still soft, “...the wedding. So we wouldn’t have any excuse to leave the island for a while. Remember? Four years from the day we met. I hadn’t realized that before. Nothing quite like being told that you’re a wife and a widow, all in the same breath.”

“You are not a widow. Legally yes, but in truth no. Jon still lives. The reason we have filed him as dead is so that Hydra will not attack him again. We may one day be able to use it against them.” Dyami shrugged, “And also to make things easier for you to manage your estate.”

Dyami paused before adding, “And you did not answer me Stesi, you need to eat something before we go to the Academy.”

“He doesn’t feel alive,” Bethany said, looking up slowly from the folder, again seemingly ignoring his query about food. When her eyes met Dyami’s, there was a cold darkness behind her glittering emerald gaze. He didn’t understand, he couldn’t understand. Half of her soul was simply not there anymore. It was a pain that she couldn’t even make herself understand. So she buried it, coping in the only way that she could. It had nearly killed her the last time she had to do it, but she was half-tempted to see how that played out. “I need sunlight. I’ll be fine.”

“Well then I suppose we will be driving part of the way, Lucky for you I will not make you ride in the back of the pickup,” Dyami chuckled, “I have a convertible stashed nearby and we have enough time for you to let your hair down on the road.”

Dyami motioned for the two of them to come along after he rose from his seat. Leading Beth who was pushing Mattias, in his wheelchair, to the nearest conference room. Upon entering, the Indian shaman closed the door behind them and pulled the shades. Walking to an open part of the room he said a few words of power, causing a portal to open, liquid silver light played on the walls of the room before disappearing as they stepped through.

They arrived in a garage with several vehicles draped in protective car covers. One easily as big as a halftrack truck and two others bore the smooth lines of a sports car.

Dyami motioned to the two concealed vehicles, “Your choice since you will be driving.”

Bethany had never felt less like letting her hair down, or driving anywhere. When she answered, her tone was flat, serious, “You could just toss a light grenade at me, or something, and portal us down there so we can get on with things. It would take less time and probably be less dangerous.”

Dyami watched as Beth continued to act as if her world had come to an end, and to be honest a large part of it had, she was simply going through the motions, trying to repress her feelings.

The Indian Shaman honestly did not have time for this, and he was not accustomed to coddling anyone. So he spoke with plain words to the young brawler. “You need to snap out of this mood girl. Or someone is going to come along and snap you out of it." Dyami looked at her with a disappointed look, “We have all lost family, friends, and lovers. I have lost wives, and children, whose names will not be remembered except by me, stolen from me just like your husband was from you. The difference is that you try to bottle that hatred away, I use it to fuel me. As should you.”

Waves of heat radiated from his body as he spoke, warming the small garage substantially in but a few moments, “Turn your loss into power. I taught you how if you will only look back over the years we have spent together. Do you need to take all this out on someone? If so, I am right here Stesi. After all, you must harbor some of that anger towards me, I led you down this path. Am I not responsible for all that has happened?” There were small tears of anger and regret in his eyes, but the young woman could tell he was serious. If she needed to take any of this out on someone he would give her that chance.

“You think I don’t use that pain? Just because I save it up for when I need it, doesn’t mean it’s not there,” Bethany returned, shaking her head and squaring off with the one man that she truly viewed as a father. “Tell me, Old Man, how am I supposed to deal with having to know that I’m the reason that they’ve trapped his soul, the literal other half of my soul, in some alien...thing? That he’s not even allowed a dignified death because of me?”

She laughed, a dark, ominous sound, tears rolling down her face, her eyes lighting up with furious swirling rainbows. “I wasn’t exactly given a choice in all of this. You and Jon decided that I just couldn’t die. And now you’re mad at me for trying to get on with things, in the only way that I can think of, rather than find some dark cave to live out the rest of my life in? Where I don’t have to deal with any of this?” Bethany motioned to everything around her.

“Young one, I am not mad, we are at a balance point, many others will lose their lives if we do not act quickly. You are the one person I have that understands what these people are going through. What will happen to them if you go into this without your mind in the right place?

Dyami reached into his back pocket and pulled out several creased photos. He handed them to the young woman. "One of my best scouts gave his life to take these photos. This is what and who we are going against."

“I would be useless if I weren’t in the state that I am now,” Bethany said, her strange eyes still burning with angry colors as she looked over the photos that Dyami showed to her. Streaks of scarlet raced across her face as she saw the very familiar pictures of the compounds, of the Ice Queen loading up trucks of people.

Mattias saw the images briefly as Bethany slowly flipped through them. When she landed on the image of the Ice Queen, his blood turned cold and his rage started to grow quietly while he sat in his wheelchair.

When she looked back up at the shaman, she continued, her voice even, serious, “I wouldn’t be able to stand right now if I let this down. I’m perfectly ready for combat if necessary, perfectly capable of doing my job. Otherwise, you’ll find me in that cave, curled up in a little ball, trying to figure out how to dig this black pit out of my chest, and burning new holes in the earth. If time is truly of the essence, then my idea of the light grenade and the portal seems to be the most efficient.”

“I still need to give you some time to reflect and cope with your mental state. We have to plan this first raid and execute it flawlessly, we might not get another chance. But it is a few weeks away, we have a lot to do. There is someone behind this and I think it is not Hydra only, they are working with someone or something.” Dyami said with a thoughtful look on his face. “And I do not know who or what that is."

"I want to kill her," Mattias finally growled angrily. As he spoke, the air around him started to have a charged feel to it.

Bethany handed the photos back to Dyami, looking over at Matty. “Get in line, kid. She’s got a long trail of blood and gore on her hands and we can never quite seem to get her.”

The young woman turned and leaned down, looking into his eyes, that cold darkness still behind her colorful gaze, as she said, rather bluntly, “But you are a kid with no training and you have zero control over yourself.” She paused to motion to him in his current state, then continued, “You know how easily she can get into your head, and that little charm only goes so far. She would turn you against us, make us put you down, and laugh the entire time. Is that really what you want?”

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TBC
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