A SAGE ADRIFT - #22

Disclaimer - I don’t own anything. Please support the official release.

A SAGE ADRIFT

#22

Detroit

He stirred awake from his sleep when he heard a latching noise from the doors. Why would the doors be open right now?

The thought made him shoot upright from his sleeping position. He instantly turned to his left and sighed in relief once he saw that Bell was all alright. He looked back towards the doors once more as a more pronounced thudding noise was heard. He began shoving Bell so that he could wake up. 

This was supposed to be a rest day. If they worked today also, they would not be able to gather food for the rest of the week. He would have to go hunt for food after the word then but it was always so exhausting. 

“Mmm, what is it?” Bell mumbled in his sleep and simply rolled away from his bedding which was just a couple of old thrift clothing they had found lying around and turned into a makeshift bed. It was a good thing it was summer right now or they would have had to sleep on the cold floor with their current bedding as their blankets.

He was jerked out of his thoughts as a violent breaking sound was heard from outside the door of the room they usually slept in.

They had to be separated from the other kids because both of them were different. They could do far more work than the other kids for a longer time so they were usually given one day off but today, somehow somebody had come to wake them up.

Bell flinched awake when he heard the sound of someone screaming in pain. It was a familiar voice.

“It’s him,” Bell said to him with wide scared eyes. He probably looked the same as well. 

Before they could do anything more, the door to their room was pulled straight out of its hinges.

“Aaaa help!” Bell shouted as he trembled in fear, holding him for comfort. He tried to stifle the scream that came out of his mouth but his trembling body just would not stop.

As soon as a shadow came out of the dust cloud that was raised from the doors being ripped out, he and Bell both stood up and back away to the wall, screaming in fear.

“Help! Help!” 

“Hey Hey calm down!” For some reason, they were inclined to believe him and so slowly calmed down. The shadow then walked out of the dust and turned into a costumed person.

“Hey, we are here to help you,” The person said while keeping his hands up. He refused to let go of Bell and the piece of rock he had in his other hand, even though his entire body was trembling profusely. It didn’t help that they hadn’t had enough food for last night so he had given his share to Bell. He was usually fine after a night’s sleep but for some reason, he was feeling really lethargic.

The man suddenly put one of his hands on his ears, prompting him to just throw the stone at him.

The man ducked under the stone and then looked at him strangely. He sheepishly said, “Sorry?”

“Yeah, they are here. Yeah, they are scared. I don’t know, Alex. I wasn’t exactly trained for this scenario. Well, I know Ms.Frost would be able to calm them down but she’s not here, is she?” The man continued to speak before their conversation was abruptly stopped by the sound of his stomach growling.

All of the people in the room began looking at him, making him blush.

The person in front of them just sighed and said in a strange tone that he now knew was kindness, “Are you guys hungry? We have lots of tasty food.”

Before he could get a word in, Bell blurted out, “Yes!”

Before he knew it, Bell was stuck to the side of the man who looked completely clueless about the situation.

Just like that, the tension in his body left him and he found himself falling face down on the floor.

“Careful!” “Timmy!” These were the last things he heard before his vision went dark.

….

..

Alex sighed, looking down at the unconscious kid. His sensors also indicated his temperature to be above average. The shock of their invasion must have worn off because he could see that the kid was barely running on fumes by now.

Covering him in a barrier, he gently urged the other kid, Bell to come with him. He had to constantly reassure Bell that his friend was fine. Despite their conditions, he could see that Bell was in relatively OK condition but Timmy was just stick and bones underneath his torn T-shirt.

These scums were working these kids to the bones, running some illegal factory to supply parts to the underground auto sector.

Apparently, they found Timmy and Bell living under a bridge because both of them had been abandoned by their parents who were drug junkies at the best of times. They made a deal with the kids to provide them with shelter and food in exchange for labour. Then, they made the startling discovery of both of them being mutants and had the excellent idea of making them work twice as hard as an adult.

From what Alex could gather, both of them had similar levels of physical enhancement powers but the way their bodies did that enhancement differed wildly. Timmy was someone who could absorb energy from the atmosphere to fuel himself. Bell was someone who needed a lot of food to do the same.

The thing was that both of them were barely getting enough food to scrape by and Timmy was inherently kind and thus gave most of his food to Bell whose stomach was never quite full, resulting in Timmy having a stunted growth along with his powers never advancing.

They would have to do a full medical scan along with a possible healing session with Mr.Naruto to see if both the kids cannot be brought back to their normal health.

Though looking at their height and seeing the age listed on the records of those scum, he would have been in denial had someone told them that both of the kids were 17 years old. They looked nothing more than 12 or 13 if you were to ask him.

Ms.Frost and Mr.Naruto were not going to be pleased. The first students of the academy turning out to be rescued child labour was not going to go well with anyone, let alone children who had clearly been starved, in more ways than one.

They had gotten a tip from someone who was on Ms.Frost’s payroll about a couple of child labour rings that had gotten their hands on some minors who had manifested mutant powers. The ring leaders were abusing and grooming the kids to become their free high-strength labour for now and once they grew up, they were supposed to act as muscle for the group.

She had pounced on the opportunity instead of just passing the tip along to Xavier and the relevant authorities because of the Academy she had chosen to open suddenly. Everybody in the team had suspicions that it was because of Mr.Naruto's demands but she would not confirm it by herself and none of them had the courage to ask her about one of her important decisions.

They were immediately tasked with retrieving the kids and eliminating the entire gang along with their leader with extreme prejudice. So far, he was the only one who was done with his task which was raiding the run-down complexes that they were using to house the kids and securing them. They had a couple of big school buses waiting downstairs to take the kids to safe facilities nearby where they will be prepped and given first aid before handing them over to private orphanages across the country. 

The rest of the team was tasked with taking down their bases along with burning all of their merchandise. Ms.Frost had explicitly told them that the bosses were supposed to be given a taste of their own medicine before being given the sweet release of death. That was what he liked the most of Ms.Frost’s methods. She was neither the naive trusting fool that was Xavier and neither the hard-headed terrorist that was Magneto. She trod a fine line that allowed her to operate in the open whilst also deterring the more hard haters of mutants from acting out against her.

It helped that she also had significant financial muscle to back up that level of influence. Financial power that was further enhanced by the absorption of all of Shaw’s assets once she had taken him under her control. He still had goosebumps when he saw the ease with which she commanded Shaw to just hand over everything to her and the sadistic glee in her eyes when she did that brought about a whole different set of emotions within him.

He really needed to get over his feelings for her but what could he do when she was her superior and he had to work with her every day?

“Um, Mr?” Bell’s voice brought him out of his reverie. He looked at Bell as he was sitting by a bed on which Timmy was lying down upon. There were multiple IVs hooked up to him, stabilising his condition until he was ready for more advanced procedures of healing. Bell’s leg swayed as he drank the chocolate milk that the staff had provided for him.

“Yes?” He asked Bell even as he made arrangements to make sure that both of them, along with the other mutant kids rescued, were able to make their way to the Academy safely because despite him trusting every single member of his team with his life, Ms.Frost thought differently. They were checked thoroughly for any mental invasions by Ms.Frost herself and there were dedicated teams that checked their movements around the clock. 

“What will happen to us now? I thought that Mr.Mask was supposed to give us food and water today.” Bell said and the absolute innocence in his voice broke something in him.

It never got any easier but he would never let that show on his face for Bell to see. So, he put down his tablet and kneeled down before Bell who looked at him curiously although he never stopped drinking the chocolate milk. Already he could see multiple cans of it lying behind Bell’s chair. It would seem his powers have already started working.

“Don’t worry about that now. You will be going to a school now. A proper one. You won’t have to worry about food and water as long as you are staying there.”

Bell nodded, a little curious but satisfied with the answer for now.

Being able to convert any sort of edible food to different nutrients that his body required for optimal functioning was good enough but his powers went a step further and actually increased the overall workings of his body, turning him into a mini pseudo-Super Soldier. 

The moment he had read through his file, he knew that Ms.Frost would be immensely interested in his powers as it could somehow enhance the already existing knowledge that they had regarding creating their own Super Soldiers.

Being able to monitor the slow progress of a normal body into a Super Soldier would provide monumental insights into the progress that could also allow them to enhance already powerful mutants that have not been blessed with a powerful body.

The situation of Xavier came to mind but it was not as if Ms.Frost would provide him with it even if she had it.

“Hello, Alex?” His comms crackled to life as someone from his team spoke into it.

“Yes?”

“We are done on our side. How are the kids coming along?”

He glanced back at Bell and Timmy. Particularly Bell who was now on his tenth can of chocolate milk.

“A little roughed up but fine. I will see you at the Academy. Over and out,” He muttered before taking out the comms and crushing it. It was a part of standard procedure to terminate contact with the rest of the team while he was supposed to transport the important cargo, i.e., the kids to the Academy. He will then meet Ms.Frost the first thing after he lands in the base where she would do a deep scan of his mind to ensure he was not influenced by anyone.

It was a little bit scary, baring his mind to her but over time, he got used to it. Nowadays, it was routine for him because of the number of missions he had to do for Ms.Frost. The missions frequency had increased a lot ever since Ms.Frost had taken over Shaw Industries and all the assets that Shaw owned. 

Apparently, that also included a team of mutants that Shaw had been putting together to specifically counter or eliminate Ms.Frost once the time came. She had already killed them once she had gotten the news but in the process, had gotten herself imprinted by a triplet of telepathic mutants who were being grown artificially in a lab. 

She had gotten quite fond of them and had already ordered for them to be moved to the Academy for education once the mandatory quarantine was done. He suspected Ms. Frost had some sort of ulterior motives with the twins, especially with Mr.Naruto but it was not his place to judge or question her in any way.

Anyway, now was not the time to leave.

“Now, Bell, come on, we are going on a trip,”

“Yay!”

He smiled at Bell’s enthusiasm as he pushed Timmy back into the back of the van and sat on the seat beside Timmy with Bell in his company. Once they were all seated in and he had tucked Bell in, he thumped the wall twice and sat back as the engine of the van started and they slowly started driving off to the Helipad, from where they will be taken to a private airstrip.

From there, they will take the jet back to the Academy. 

Word Count - 2400