…SUCH MEN ARE DANGEROUS
PART THREE
"Mr. Creed, we have a problem."
"I don’t get problems, Spike."
"Please call me Stevens. I’m not that person anymore."
"I’ll call ya whatever the hell I feel like callin’ ya. So what were ya blubberin’ about?"
"Something unexpected, uh sir."
"What?" Sabretooth fell back into his seat and popped open a beer.
"Well, you see, she’s a psi-blocker."
"A what?"
"A psi-blocker—of the first caliber, I’m afraid."
"What the hell does that mean?" The agitation in his voice was evident.
"A psi-blocker is someone who does not have any telepathic ability but has learned or trained to ward off psionic attack or manipulation."
"So what yer sayin’ is…"
"This may not work. It was sheer luck that she sustained a head injury in the blast. It made it easier to initiate the full memory block because she was already suffering from partial amnesia. But the kind of manipulation you are speaking of… wanting to change her memories… Although she can’t remember it, her mental training is still in place. It won’t work!
Sabretooth finished his drink and crushed the can on his knee.
"It will work. Don’t need t’change her memories, just push ‘em in the right direction. She gets any flashbacks ‘bout the X-Men, or the Runt, I already gave her an explanation for it. He’s like me in some ways, but nearly as good. All you gotta do is emphasize those things we got in common so that it’ll apply t’me. She’ll think I’m the one she wants. Got it?"
Stevens nodded solemnly and turned to leave.
"’Nother thing. Anythin’ negative ‘bout the X-Men, painful memories, things in the news—anything-- pull ‘em up. I want any thoughts she has of them to be as bad as possible."
"Understood, sir."
"Spike…"
"Yes, sir?"
"You mess this up, I’ll paint my car with yer spleen."
"…I understand."
* * * * *
"Well?"
"We go through with it."
"But I can’t! She been too well trained!"
"I don’t doubt that. Their leader was one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet."
"So he can’t expect us to…"
"All we have to do is pull certain memories and feelings to the surface, and re-direct them. We’re not actually changing anything—not really."
Ms. Kesh sighed. "This is just so wrong, Michael. How could we do this to someone? She hasn’t done anything wrong!" "We don’t have a choice! He will hunt us down and gut us if we don’t do what he asks. He found us before, don’t doubt he’ll be able to find us again."
"But maybe if we contacted the X-M--"
Dr. Stevens smacked her across the face.
"You idiot! Don’t even whisper the words. He can hear you breathing in another room for god’s sake! And you’re talking about betraying him!? Are you mad?! Or maybe you like to see your insides on the floor or your head mounted on the wall?! Don’t let me hear of you even thinking anything like that again."
Kesh rubbed the side of her face.
"We’ve been partners together for a lot of years Kesh, but I am not getting killed because of you!"
"Nice to know where I stand with you."
Stevens didn’t reply. He left to check on his patient.
‘Wouldn’t mom be proud?’ He thought to himself.
Coming from a poor family, his mother had always dreamed that by some miracle one of her children would become a professional. She was so happy when he graduated Med School and opened his own practice. She didn’t know it was a practice of patching up the underworld of New York. Mom thought he’d gotten a scholarship or a grant of some sort-- and in a way he had. Those best left unnamed paid his way through school with the understanding he would use his talents to help them – no questions asked.
He’d hated it. For nearly fifteen years he slugged away in a dimly lit room, in the back of a building off the side off an ally that "no one knew about". They’d given him the name Spike, for his skill with a scalpel.
Ten years ago, his patrons brought in a woman in her late teens that was in possession of some information they wanted. She had been shot several times, and they wanted her in perfect health when the persuaded her to tell what she knew.
Several hours after he’d patched her up, her guards got up and headed for the door. He’d asked what he was to do about her. They replied that they didn’t know her, had never seen her before and didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. No one else in the clinic had remembered seeing her before either, even though she had been in plain view of everyone for hours. He was the only one who seemed to remember her. She obviously had not been expecting this, as she was quite surprised that he recognized her. Her powers weren’t working. It was then that she realized he too was a mutant, whose powers matched her own. It was either that or he was a psi-blocker and from his surroundings, she did not think that was likely.
She made a deal with him. He let her go, and she would train him to use his powers—powers that until that moment he didn’t know existed. They both had the ability to suppress or block people’s memories and if they desire it, to change a person’s memories or their perception of them. She convinced him that he could use this power to get out of his situation. Simply make them forget they ever met him. And with her help, he did. Three months after they’d met, Dr. Michael Stevens walked out of his clinic and no one missed him.
He started a private practice which, while he did help people, he would charge them to the extreme, sometimes for services they only thought they received. Any difficulties with the AMA, were forgotten. He lived in a large house, drove fancy cars, and worked only for himself.
Until Sabretooth found him. Victor Creed was looking for someone with his skill on both the mutant and them medical level. Much investigation led him to Stevens and Kesh. They attempted to block his knowledge of him. It worked—for about 30 seconds. Of all the senses, scent is largest catalyst for memory. A person could pick up a faint smell on the breeze and remember a moment or a feeling, and as quickly as the wind passes, the memory is gone. Sabretooth’s senses were enhanced. They wiped his mind and began to walk away, as he no longer knew them. A moment later, he caught their scent and their memory wall came crashing down. He had them.
And now he had her.
Stevens didn’t know what Sabretooth wanted with Ms. Monroe. The man only told them what he thought they needed to know to accomplish the task. He had been observing the young woman’s actions for several weeks. When a compound she and her teammates were in exploded, he made his move. A woman with purple skin, teleported Ororo to them an instant after the blast. He paid her a large sum of money and they hadn’t seen her since.
He had helped heal the wounds Ororo sustained in the explosion as best he could, but she still remained in a coma for three weeks. Since waking, he was glad to see her recovery speed had almost doubled, but now he was preparing to do even more damage to this poor woman.
‘Wouldn’t mom be proud.’
To Be Continued…
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