Extremes #6: There Goes Alex Early the next morning, Drew Ebon awakens and sits up. Gosh, I'm sure tired. I wonder how Alex slept last night, says Drew to himself, dropping his forehead on his palm. All of this just so weird for me. Who knew I was a mutant who had telepathic abilities? And now I'm here away from my friends and most of all, my family. Well, I have no business sitting here all day. I want to be with the team, the team I belong to now. Drew gets up, stumbling toward to the bathroom to take a shower. Afterwards, Drew puts on the costume his teacher, Emma Frost, gave to him before he went to bed. Good grief. They expect me to wear this?! No way. Ain't gonna do it. No sir. Not me. No. No. Nope. I know what I'll do!!! I'll just make my own. HaHaHa! Alex's room . . . I wonder if I should tell Drew more about my time line. We've been good friends for a pretty good while, but I don't know. It was awful there. I sure am glad I don't have to go back. Since the other day, though, the great disaster might come any moment. That Orion guy sure was creepy. I don't think we've seen the last of him. Whaa? My . . . head. It hurts "Unnng,"moans Alex falling to the ground, then screaming, "Ahhhhhh!!!! What's happening to me? Orion?!" In front of him is an immense flash of light. With it dissipating, a person stands stern, as energies of his own encircle him. "Drew Ebon . . . you have seen the last of Orion," the man says, staring with eyes with unnatural energies emitting from them. "He has failed the Brotherhood terribly." "Drew Ebon? Now hold on, I'm not . . . wait a minute, the Brotherhood? Are you HAVOK?" "How do you know my name, gene-trash?" he yells grabbing Alex's neck. "Your little teammate, Orion, leaked the information through a telepathic contact with one of my friends!" "How dare you raise your voice at me?!" Havok plunges his hands in front of himself, as whirling plasma blasts hurl themselves at Alex. "Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!" Alex screams. "Alex?" asks Drew, still in his room. "He needs my help! I've heard these walls are self-restructuring. That will come it handy." Drew lifts himself off the ground, then fires a telekinetic blast through the walls hindering him from Alex. He then flies into Alex's room. "Alex, are you . . . okay?" Drew looks in despair when he sees nothing but a wrecked room. "I can still see psionic imprints around me. It was of Alex and someone else." Drew puts his fingers to his forehead and unleashes a telepathic wave all over the room. "Oh, no! The other presence here was Havok!" Drew drops to the ground, crying out, "Why? We just got here! What did Alex do to you? Oh, my friend, I promise I will find you and bring you back here where you truly belong!" Later that morning, Drew explains everything that occurred with Alex to the team, in the Ready Room. " . . . When I blasted into his room, he was gone. The only thing I found was a psi-print of him and Havok." "Havok?" Ms. Frost inquires. "I know I should've told you sooner, but that guy Orion, who attacked Alex and me, is on some sort of mutant terrorist team named the Brotherhood. They're out for humans and mutants, killing anyone who gets in their way! Havok, the brother of the X-Men's leader, Cyclops." "Havok has always been under his brother's shadow," starts Sean, "but I donna think that could've caused him to go bad." "I agree, Mr. Cassidy. My theory is that Havok is being manipulated by someone in his past, also in a group." "Who, Drew?" asks Frost. "I cannot tell you, until I know what I think is true. We have no idea where to look for Alex, but if we infiltrate the group who's controlling him, we'll be able to get him!" "What group?" Paige joins the conversation. "The Hellfire Club." In a dreary yacht in New York City, Alex Davidson sits, tied to a chair, being burdened with the loss of light. "How do I get myself into these things?" he asks himself. "I wonder if GenX is trying to find me." A slam of a door is created as someone turns on the room's light. "Hello, child, welcome to my water-bound refuge. I'm sure it will be of your liking," says a man walking in front of Alex. "Who are you and what do you want with me?" Alex sternly asks, squirming in the ropes. "Your psionic powers can prove useful to my teammates . . ." "Psionic powers?" Alex ponders. ". . . We are just now reforming, young Ebon. We are without a BlackKnight, and you, if you pass our tests, will become the BlackKnight of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle! As to who I am, I am Sebastian Shaw, the BlackKing." "Hellfire Club?" Alex asks as he remembers the stories that Emma had told him and Drew on the way to Massachusetts. "Yes." "Why do you want me? I know you like the idea of me being your little servant and protecting you, Shaw, but I thought someone in the Hellfire Club has to have a past kinsman as a role in the Inner Circle. I don't." "Oh, but you do, Andrew. Your relative was the BlackKnight of the BlackKing, my relative, in England, where the first branch of the Club started." "Can I tell you something?" "Of course." "What would you do if I told you that I wasn't Drew Ebon, but one of his friends?" "Then I would hurt you very severely," Shaw starts, leaning closer to Alex, "and then I would hunt down the real Drew Ebon!" "I was afraid of that. Well, Shaw, I'm not Drew Ebon. Please don't hurt me." "I have no time for this pre-adolescent behavior. You will serve your purpose one way or another, mark my words! Now, to find the real Drew Ebon." "Oh, no." "Well, isn't this a whole mess!" shouts Sean, hitting his desk. "Calm down, Sean," says his associate and partner of teaching. "Calm down, lass? How kinne do that? This is just like the Emplate mess! Some of our students almost go themselves killed! And now this happens. First, a guy called Orion attacks Drew and Alex, and second Havok's kidnaping Alex, taking him to the Hellfire Club!" "And of the rumors I've heard through some of my colleagues in the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw is back, running his son, Shinobi, out of the chair of BlackKing. If he's in charge now, we'll have to be careful. I know how his mind thinks. I've been in there before and it's not a pretty site." "The Hellfire Club or Shaw's mind?" "His mind, Sean. What else were we talking about?!" "Sorry," he says in a bratty expression. "Now, to more important matters. Why would Sebastian want Alex?" A knock comes from the door of the main office. Drew enters without permission. "I decided that this was urgent so I let myself in. To answer that question, Ms. Frost," starts Drew, sitting down, "he didn't want Alex, he wanted me." "Why you?" asks Emma. "I've done some more psi-linking this afternoon on Cerebro. I found the files contained in the Hellfire Club's main computer system. They wanted me because the Inner Circle is presently reforming and they know that by right, I am the BlackKnight. My kinsman was second only to the Black King, Shaw's relative, of that time period. The Black King died, leaving my relative the mantle of BlackKing. In a way, I should be the BlackKing, but Sebastian's power overrules mine." "But you not of age, Drew," says Emma. "Not true, Ms. Frost. There is no age limit. There is, however, a maturity scale. Between the lowest acceptance and the highest acceptance of becoming a member, I am placed right in between there." "So, what are you going to do, Andrew?" "Are ye mad, woman? No student of mine is going to risk his life for a mere game of power!" "Ms. Frost is right, Mr. Cassidy, on thinking I have enough discipline to take care of myself. I plan on to take my role as BlackKnight, find Alex and rescue him, and then simply demolish the whole Inner Circle." "You mean killing them?" asks Cassidy. "Of course not. What I meant was to break the InnerCircle up." "Oh." "I also will not go alone, though." "What do you mean this time?" "I have also learned that Paige has an ancestor also, that's related to a far ago Hellfire member. She would be the White Rook." Paige then comes in, smiling at the opportunity. "Well, if you two think you're up to it," states Frost, "then so be it." "All right!" Drew and Paige scream, slapping their hands on each other's. -- Moonlight Knight, Prince Endymion __ / / / / / / / / / / "He who shall use his might blade to destroy the spite of / / the Negaverse." / / / / Member of the #AAS#: Achika Appreciation Society / / Member of the #SAS#: Sasami Appreciation Society __/_/__ Member of the Chamber Fanclub / / / / / / /_/