Extremes #7: The Inner Circle

	"Do you think we're up to this?" asks Paige.
	"Sure we are," replies Drew as he and Paige carry their suitcases into
the trunk of a BMW owned by Emma Frost. "To tell you the truth, Paige,
I'm kinda excited about the whole idea of joining the Hellfire Club. My
grand-father talked about it to me once, about how great it was. The
problem now is that the Inner Circle is comprised of mutants playing a
game of power. Well, that's all of it."
	Drew shuts the trunk and goes with Paige inside the school,
specifically the living room.
	"Wow, Drew," starts Paige, with a glowing expression on her face, "you
must be really excited, other than the temporary joining of the Hellfire
club. I mean, you just came here the other day, and you already have an
assignment. I never thought that Mr. Cassidy and Ms. Frost would allow
us to go."
	"They only let us because of Alex," says Drew, laying down on the
couch. "Otherwise, they wouldn't let us. You're right of course though.
I am pretty exited. Everything is going exactly like it should."
	"Even Alex's kidnaping?"
	"Well, not that exactly, but indirectly, I've been given a role in this
team and I plan on doing the best job I can do."
	"That's the spirit, Drew. I'm really glad you came here. All of us
loves it here."
	"Really? Well, why did two of the members of GenX leave? I think their
names were Jono and Amilio?"
	Drew gazes over at Paige, sitting on a scarlet chair, seeing depressed
thoughts emitting from her mind.
	"Did I say something wrong, Paige? What's the matter?"
	"Nothing, I guess."
	"I don't believe that, Paige. You're talking to a telepath. Do you
think you can hide your emotions from me?"
	"You . . . read my mind?!" Paige yells getting up from her chair.
	"No, no, you got it all wrong," Drew waves his hands. "It's just that
being a telepathy, I can see emotions coming from you, radiating from
you. It's not really my fault. I can't help it."
	"Sorry I screamed at you," Paige says sitting back down.
	"You had the right to, Paige. No one likes to be mind scanned. Just try
to understand for now on that if I read your mind, I really can't help
it. Okay?"
	"Okay."
	"Jubilee told me about it, too."
	Paige has a puzzled expression and asks, "Told you what?"
	"About the "thing" between you and Jono, and how he left because he
needed to see some of his friends and try to restart his life. This is
after he learned how to completely resurface his chest, instead of
bio-kinetic psi-energy emitting from him. I also learned that you felt
that it was your fault because of his leaving and you've been depressed
ever since."
	"Silly isn't it?"
	"I don't think so."
	Paige looks up to him, saying, "What?"
	"I don't think so because that's how anyone would respond to that kind
of situation. I know I would. Now come on, Paige. This is supposed to be
our day of glory, so lets not ruin it, okay? Sorry about bringing that
up."
	"It's okay, Drew." 
	They then both leave the room and go outside to the BMW, as Emma Frost
awaits them.
	"Sorry, Ms. Frost," says Drew, as he and Paige get in the car. "we just
got carried away in a conversation."
	"I know, Drew, not lets get this show on the road."
	They then leave the gigantic driveway and head to New York city . . .
	
	Inner Circle meeting chamber, within Sebastian Shaw's private yacht
later that day . . .
	"So, Sebastian," says a woman to the big-built man leaning his elbow on
the mantle of a fireplace, and looking downward, "have you thought about
how we're going to get the child?"
	"Of course, Tessa, but right now I'm thinking if he will turn on us, a
clever attempt to rescue his friend, if we bring him here. The only
plausible idea is for him to come on his own behalf," he looks at her.
	"Another question, Sebastian?"
	"Yes?"
	"Why do we need this child in the first place? We already have two
psi-based mutants here. Why another?"
	"Because he has more power than you and Madeline combined! He could
destroy us all if he wanted. I want him to join the Inner Circle so he
won't let the X-Men unleash a mutant as powerful as Drew on me again."
	"More powerful? But how can that be when he's only a boy?"
	"Age blinds you, Tess. You are right in a way. Not all of his powers
have come up from dormancy. They will soon though."
	Outside of the room, loud crashes are heard. 
	"You can't come barging in here. You have to have special permisiion to
see the leaders of the Hellfire Club!" yells a guard.
	"What's the ruccus?" Sabastion questions, opening the doors. He sees
brilliant blue flashes in front of him, then seeing his guards on the
ground. He raises his head to find two youths, one boy and one girl. One
he knows, the other he does not.
	"Mr. Shaw," the young mas says, "I believe you need to get better help.
These humans cannot stand against Sentinels or X-Men, can they? Only my
services to you can make ammends for your failure of so long a denial of
my joing the Hellfire Club."
	"Stay cool, Sebastion," says Tessa to Sebastion behind him. "He's only
a child . . ."
	"Be quiet, Tess. I like the young man's spunk! You must be Andrew Blake
Ebon. How nice it is to finally meet you. Forgive me for my guards
bluntness attack on you. We didn't expect you. Do come in."
	"Thank you," Drew says as he and his unnamed friend follows him into
the room.
	After all of them are in, Tessa closes the doors, as the others sit
down.
	"So, Drew, tell me who this young maiden of yours is?"
	Drew and -Paige- look surprised at Sebastian's word, yours.
	"No, sir, she's not mine. But as another piece to your collection of
members. I know you want me to be the BlackKnight of the Club, and
that's fine with me. I also know that you have Alex Davidson, my
ex-associate."
	"Yes, do you wish to see him?"
	"No, I do not. He is corrupted with ideas that the X-Men are superior
to all other mutants. I disagree with his notions. If I see him now, I
might change my mind, and I do not wish that to happen for I believe
that being in the Hellfire Club is a wise choice."
	"Do you now? Why?"
	"The Hellfire Club is comprised of the most powerful mutants. I wish to
be one of them. About the lady to my left, her name is Paige Guthrie,
another of the school we recently joined. I have found out that she too
has Hellfire blood in her. She is to be White Queen."
	"What?" shouts Tessa. "Sebastian, are you going to let these children
rule you?"
	"Be silent, Tessa! In all affairs, young Ebon should be the BlackKing.
If he wishes this young girl to be the White Queen, so be it."
	"Thank you, Mr. Shaw."
	"Don't thank my yet, Andrew. You two will have to have a test of combat
and show yourselves to be worthy of joining the Hellfire Club."
	"Yes, sir," Drew and Paige says together.
	"I have Sebastian right where I want him. He knows that I can take full
control over the Inner Circle. He dares not insult me and Paige," Drew
thinks to himself.
	"Come this way, please," Sebastian rises from his seat, as Drew and
Paige does as well. They walk out of the room,  the doors held open by
Tessa.
	Together, they journey off of the yacht into a courtyard surrounded by
the ruins of white stone houses. Standing in the middle of the courtyard
is a woman of youthful skin, yet her eyes, her fierce eyes tell Drew
that she is very old despite her looks. 
	"Hello, Andrew," the woman says.
	"Hello."
	"I am Selena, Black Queen of the Inner Circle. This is my BlackRook,
Madelyne Pryor," she utters, grasping her long cloak, high into the air,
revealing a red-headed woman. "If you wish to protect the BlackFamily as
the BlackKnight, you will have to fight for that position. You will
fight Madelyne."
	"Protecting them by fighting them first?" asks Drew. "Well, things have
changed so let's get to it!"
	Drew leaps into the air, though not hovering, he is using his
telekinetic powers to give him great agility, as  Madelyne uses her
natural agility to leap into the air. Madelyne's hands embrace each
other, forming an orb of dark energy, which then is hurled at Drew.
Since Drew hasn't master his telekinetic power to manipulate energy,
other than psionic energy of course, he is powerless against Madelyne's
blast of darkness. The ball grows gigantically, consuming Drew into it's
dark core.
	"What is this?" Drew asks as he sees nothing but darkness.
	He touches the outlaying walls of the globe-like structure with his
right hand. Then with his left hand, Drew touches his forehead. Another
power included in his telepathic prowess is to psionically scan
something produced or used by another person. 
	"I think," he utters, "that this is just some sort of weird telekinetic
field, also swirling into the telekinetic fabrications is telepathic
fibers. It must be blocking my senses then. First I thought that it was
some sort of energy foreign to me, but now I see that it blocked my
telepathic senses. Well, lady, you've got to do better than that. I have
some slyness, too. I'll just wait until she thinks I'm defeated and then
she'll get some telekinetic knock outs! Hmm . . .  but I don't think I
can just wait here. She's probably to smart for that. I know. Even
though my body is in here, that doesn't mean that my mind has to be
locked in here. I'll just manipulate some of this psi-energy, thought
I'm not strong enough to destroy it, but I can make a telepathic gateway
from my mind through this psi-field into her mind. Since she's producing
this field, I should be able to access that link between her and the
field, so it should work. Only one way to find out."
 	Drew then touches the side of the field again. His own psi-energy
builds a doorway-like opening through the filed into Madelyne's mind. He
lays back, closes his eyes, and concentrates. His astral self springs
from his body and through the doorway.
	"Wow," Drew says. "I've been in the astral plane, but I've never been
in someone else's mind. This looks like a lot of her memories, but why
are they represented in ‘shards' I wonder."
	Suddenly, without warning, Drew is whisked away from the "memory
shards" to a place where pink and blue energy make up the apparent
borders of this new plane of existence. At first, Drew is very confused.
Creating a psi-force field, Drew protects himself from any sudden mental
attacks. He whirls around, seeing a platform, precisely designed. 
	"Oh, my gosh."
	Drew says this crude remark, for he sees a woman standing upon the
platform, dressed with beautiful robes made up of astral energy. The
woman has the figure and appearance of Madelyne Pryor. Drew waits for an
assault, but nothing happens. He strolls in a complacent manner, only to
see when he gets nearer to the woman, that her eyes are closed.
	"Hmm. I wonder if this is her astral self. It must be. Her physical
body is in control right now, so her astral self must be ‘resting.' My
body is in a sleep state as my is in control. The Inner Circle knows
more about me than I know about them. I'll just even the score! Now,
let's just see who you really are, Madelyne."
	He places both of his hands on her forehead. Drew's psionic energy
emits from his mind into the astral form of Madelyne. 
	Then, Drew calls out what he finds about the mysterious mutant woman,
"I sense that you are very powerful, in both corporal and mental powers.
You have telekinesis, but that power is very limited. Then how did you
create that t.k. globe? Let's dig deeper into your mind, Maddy . . .
hmm, you also have matter control and conversion. That must be the power
you used on me. You simply converted the air around me into psionic
energy. I'll know next time how I'll deal with you. Telepathy, too. Not
surprised. Well, that's all I came here for. I'm not going to dig around
her memories. That's her personal life. I'm just going to place a little
psi-block in your mind. With that, I can easily brake free of your hold
over that sphere thingie. Astral energies . . . come forth and take me
back!"
	Drew is suddenly hurled into the place of Madelyne's mind where he
first started at. He then goes through the mind-gate, back to his body,
as his physical eyes open.
	"Alright, Madelyne. Time to fight!" he screams as he forces the
energies around him to release him by using his telekinetic blasts.
"Miss me?"
	"How can this be? You're only a child, yet you extinguish my psi-field.
How dare you?!" Madelyne cries as she  fires energy blast at Drew.
	"She must be converting the air around her to produce those blasts.
She's going to do better than that when I can just . . ." Drew says to
himself, making a telekinetic shield in front of him, protecting him
from the blasts. He then uses his astral projection power to create an
image of himself with the shield him. He flies into the air and his
telekinetic blasts are discharged from his hands onto Madelyne. She
falls to the ground, beaten and bruised for she did not expect that kind
of an attack from a ‘child.' Drew follows her, gliding in the air with
telekinetic energies surrounding him.
	The reaches the ground where Madelyne lies. Drew generates a long spear
of psi-energy in his right hand and places it's point near Madelyne's
head. She raises her eyes, finding the one who surpassed her. 
	"Don't move Madelyne. One move and my psi-spear will go through your
head. Not a pretty site."
	"Congratulations," says Sebastian, clapping his hands. "Welcome to the
Inner Circle, Andrew"

	Note: While Drew and Madelyne were fighting, Paige fought Tessa, and
because Paige is a super hero, she won.