A SAGE ADRIFT - #17

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A SAGE ADRIFT

#17

It was the day after Emma had conducted every medical test known to man on Sebastian Show and found nothing wrong with him. It was as if, physically, he was the same mutant who had tormented her for years and was the single biggest thorn in her way to achieve her goals but mentally?

Mentally, he had gone from a rapist bully to someone who followed every single one of her words. She even had him stop breathing for a while right up until he fell unconscious. This was out of the norm for any telepath out there but that was not the most important thing she had to do today.

While Shaw himself would accelerate most of her existing plans, Naruto could potentially make them redundant because of the sheer power he had at his disposal, along with the seemingly unconditional support of the sorcerers. She had thought about what to do with Naruto for a long while. While she had warded off Charles for now, she was sure that the old coot would undoubtedly try once again. Then there was the issue of Magneto. She had no feasible way of telling him to back off but she would cross that bridge when it came to it.

For now, she waited for Naruto to come to the meeting room. The same meeting room where Naruto had waited for her for a few hours. He must have done something because she had the plants in the room tested and somehow, they had grown more healthy than it should be possible.

Due to the very nature of the surroundings around them, the plants that were used to decorate the meeting room usually didn’t survive for long. But when she came to the meeting room ahead of time, as a way to get settled, she found that the plants in the room were glistening, almost unnaturally. Suspicious about the sudden change, she immediately had them tested with their resident biologist on the base and found that somehow, the plants were some of the best specimens her biologist had ever seen in her life. Even the ones found in their natural habitat with the best possible conditions didn’t have the same health as the ones in the meeting room. She had been hounded by her to find out how the phenomenon happened but she kept the part about Naruto to herself. 

For as long as possible, she wanted to keep Naruto a well-hidden secret for herself. While she would heed the Ancient One’s warning simply because it was the Ancient One and one does not simply ignore her warnings (That was how one found oneself dead) but also because she was hoping to use Naruto for some of her personal gains. Of course, the very reward of being essentially given ownership of Shaw was a very great gift but a girl could always dream for more.

A knocking sound brought her out of her fanciful dreams of one day ruling over a small kingdom.

“Yes, come in,” She said before closing the laptop in front of her which showed her the daily runnings of Frost International.

“You called for me,” Naruto said once he sat down in front of her, looking remarkably fresher than yesterday.

“You seem to be in a much better mood.”

“I am. I have a goal now and that helps a lot,” Naruto said while flexing his right arm. The same arm that had turned into some sort of slurry and covered the form of Dorothy Davis, healing her completely once he was done. The same arm that showed itself to be a completely different being than Naruto, at least according to the analysis done on Naruto by her team. 

Feigning casual curiosity, she asked Naruto, “Is there something wrong with your arm? Because the fight with the Juggernaut definitely was taxing on you in some way. Should we have someone take a look at your arm?”

Naruto looked up at her in surprise and said, “Ah, no. It’s just sore, that’s all. I-My body wasn’t properly healed yesterday when I fought with him. That is why it's hurting now. But it's just a little pain and it'll pass soon so don’t worry about me.”

Emma nodded, “Okay, if you say so.”

“Now, on to business then,” She said while taking out a file from the bag that was sitting next to her. 

Naruto nodded, sensing the change in her demeanour.

“What I have in this file are all the known locations and sizes of bases of Friends of Humanity.”

Naruto’s eyes sharpened as he looked at her and despite herself, she found herself flinching a little when Naruto’s presence exerted a subtle pressure in the room. It was absolutely not subtle for people like her who could sense mental presence.

Clearing her throat, she removed another folder from the bag and kept both the files on the coffee table in front of them. Naruto looked at the files but didn’t touch them. Instead, he looked back at Emma, a clear questioning look on his face.

“The second file contains a list of all the known members. Some of them are high up in the government, military, and private companies. Most of them are just grunt soldiers though. People down on their lives, picked up by an exploitative group and then leashed using the threat of legal punishment by the evidence gathered by the group.”

“And what do I have to do in exchange for all this information?” Naruto asked her cautiously, still not making a move to pick up the files even though she could see he desperately wanted to since it was the only thing keeping him here, with her, in this base.

She was sure that he was lost and looking for a purpose of some sort and hunting down Friends of Humanity was something he had chosen as a distraction. She might not be able to breach his mental shields but she had enough experience reading people who had excellent mental fortification in all her years of dealing with the Hellfire Club.

Speaking of the Hellfire Club, “Smart. I like dealing with people who are smart. Reduces all the small talk and saves time.”

Naruto just deadpans at her, clearly aware of the irony that was her using small talk in this conversation.

“Ahem, anyway. I don’t want you to think that I misguided you so here are all the facts. One day, I hope for a better future for mutants. Where they are not prejudiced against simply because of something they had no control over. For that, I need power. Plain and simple. Power to simply ignore the law. Power to make the people in power listen to me. Power to make sure that anybody who wishes to harm mutants would quiver at the thought of facing me. Power so that nobody can just abduct mutants off the street and experiment on them, thinking that nobody would investigate.”

Naruto looked at her with the same serious look but she could see his eyes softening at her passionate speech.

“Power that I don't currently have and judging from the looks of it, probably never will. At Least not the type of power that will immediately make everybody listen to me. So, I turned to another type of power. Soft power. Power through economics, money. Power through capitalism will force them to at least listen to what I have to say. Power to influence global events that would allow me to benefit.”

Naruto attentively listened to what Emma had to say even as he continued flexing his right arm because of the sudden bouts of pain that came from it, confirming his theory of him overdrawing on the Hashirama Cells and its drawbacks. Probably because he didn’t have more of them, he would not be able to use them extensively for a period of time. He could feel them healing but it was a slow process due to sheer damage they had to heal during his fight with the Juggernaut. During that fight, it felt as if every hit led to some of his bones breaking which the Hashirama cells had to heal almost instantly so that he could jump back into the fray with Cain Marko.

“Even so, I never stopped looking for real power. The power that came from mutant powers. For that purpose, I made a clandestine organisation of sorts that would help mutants across the world and perform undercover missions to look for powerful mutants that would help me achieve my goals.”

“And you think I am that powerful mutant that you have been in search of all this while? Sorry to say but I only work for myself and what I believe to be right.”

“And you don’t think mutants gaining equality and respect is right?”

“No, I do believe in that but I don’t believe in the crap that you just tried to feed me. I repeat again, I will not be anybody’s hired gun. I will not be using my powers for the personal benefit of anybody else. While you told me that you are doing everything you can for your community, all I see is a woman hoarding more power than most people know what to do with. I could see you doing good with all the power you would gain but on the other side, I see so much bad that I shudder to think what would happen to the world if that were to come true.”

Emma nodded, completely unsurprised as Naruto saw right through her ruse. While she herself wanted good for her kind, she was not going to sacrifice personal goals for that and the Ancient One knew that, hence the gift in the form of one Sebastian Shaw.

“Very well then. How do you propose we go from here then?”

“Simple. You name the price you want for the information you have which is unverified by the way. And then we negotiate and once the price is decided, I’ll complete my job and then go after the Friends of Humanity.”

“Okay then. Just out of curiosity, how will you be “going after them”? Emma said while using quotation marks in the air at the last phrase, curious as to the methods that Naruto would employ since with his strength, anything he would do would surely end up attracting unwanted attention.

“Before you answer though, listen to what I say. You might claim that you are not a mutant but the world would not see it as such. In fact, the world leaders, now that they are definitely aware of your strengths, would fan the flames in the background, trying to declare you a terrorist. It might be because they are scared of you or want your powers for themselves, it matters now. What matters is that no matter the type of action you take, mutants will be blamed for it. It might even happen that even if you don't take action, the government will and just frame you for it. The people are not going to listen to anybody else. All they hear is what their government tells them. So, I will ask you to think long and carefully about the type of actions you are going to take because depending on what they might be, the reputation of the entire mutant kind might hang in the balance.

Naruto looked at her wide-eyed, stunned at her tirade.

“Ahem, for starters, I was going to gather more information about them and rescue any innocents they might have captured. Well, once my body had healed anyway.”

Emma nodded, “Okay, I can work with that. Tell me, what happens once they catch you destroying their property and declaring you a terrorist? They might even punish the people you rescued, this time legally, for destroying government property or any other number of drummed-up charges that they can impose on their whim.”

To that, Naruto had no answer and that was where Emma struck.

“Look, my way is slow but it is already generating results. You said that you will go after them after your body is done healing, right? Well, why not look at the way I do things until then? If even after that, you are not satisfied with the way I do things, you are free to leave and the information will be given to you regardless. The payment has already been made. So, what do you say?” Emma said while extending her hand for a handshake.

Naruto eyed her hand, clearly suspicious of her offer but it was not like he could do anything significant without his body completely healed so he nodded and shook her hand.

Emma beamed uncharacteristically, “Great. We’ll meet first thing tomorrow morning. We have a lot of stuff to go over.”

Naruto nodded and left the room, his mind whirling at the implications of what he had learned in the short meeting.

Truly, Emma Frost was a mastermind manipulator, with or without her powers.

Word Count - 2191