Rootless: Part 4
by Samy Merchi
PREVIOUSLY IN ROOTLESS:
During their trek thru America, X-Force, consisting of Danielle 'Mirage' Moonstar, Roberto 'Sunspot' Da Costa, Tabitha 'Meltdown' Smith, James 'Warpath' Proudstar and Theresa 'Siryn' Rourke Cassidy have come upon the small town of Boulder, Colorado on their way westwards.
However, little do they know that the town of Boulder is currently home and haven to the fugitive former supervillains called the Thunderbolts, consisting of Karla 'Moonstone' Sofen, Abner 'MACH-1' Jenkins, Melissa 'Songbird' Gold, Erik 'Atlas' Josten and Hallie 'Jolt' Takahama.
X-Force had dinner at the Kozy Kot restaurant where both Abe and Melissa work, and there was some mild flirting between Roberto and Melissa, which caused some strain in Abe and Melissa's relationship.
After Abe and Melissa get off work, they're confronted in an alley by Roberto, who flirts with Melissa, and thus causes Abe to attack him. He knocks Abe out, and then tells Melissa that he intends to call SHIELD so the Thunderbolts will be brought to justice. [ROOTLESS,Chapter1]
Melissa and Abe then informed the rest of the Thunderbolts of the situation, and they decided to have a 'talk' with Roberto about the whole matter. The next morning, as X-Force left Boulder and headed northwards along a road from the city, they were suddenly ambushed by the Thunderbolts who demanded to talk to Roberto... [ROOTLESS,Chapter2]
And last time, we started the obligatory fight-scene, where among other things, Karla got nailed by a psionic arrow of Danielle's... [ROOTLESS,Chapter 3 ]
...and this time, we'll finish it!
"...GUILTY!" The word impacts onto your ears like a whipcrack, but not a single muscle on your face moves, as you watch the juror, Mr Rogers, who seems familiar somehow, in grim silence. Not a single muscle in your entire body moves, after your head turns to regard the judge, and your eyes narrow in defiance. You watch the other woman with a harsh, unforgiving stare, already knowing what Judge Walters would say. But you don't care. It doesn't matter to you. She's not you, and only you matter to yourself.
"...and so..." the voice goes on, and you notice you've already missed a good part of what the judge has been saying, lost in your own thoughts "...Karla Sofen, for your crimes as Moonstone, you are sentenced to death by lethal injection, to be carried out on July 4th of this year at Riker's Island penitentiary..."
You wait. You sit in silence, like those words mean nothing to you, until two police officers grab your arms, and lift you up from the chair you're sitting in. If you only had your powers, you'd rip their arms off for even daring to touch you. But even still, no expression on your face. Don't give them the pleasure, right? You're not afraid, are you? You're in control, aren't you? You're always in control. They just don't know it.
Right?
You walk quietly with the policemen, to the car waiting outside, and one of them roughly puts you in the back seat. "I bet your wife left you because you beat her", you hiss in response, and from the way the officer freezes for a moment, you know you hit the nail right on the head. And you smile, knowing that you're Karla Sofen, and you are in control of the situation. You know the men holding you better than they know themselves, even though they've barely said a word to you. You read their mannerisms, the things they say to each other when they think you're not listening, you watch how they react to newspaper headlines as you pass a newsstand on the way to the car... You're a psychiatrist, Karla Sofen. You're always in control. Of everyone.
Except yourself? Is that why you always keep so emotionally distant from everything and everyone? You don't want to end up like the pathetic sheep who let their emotions rule them, you want to see them rut around in their feelings, you want to see them wallow in everything that humanity is -- because that makes them readable. Predictable. And you don't want to be readable, predictable to anyone. Because then you'd be weak. And it could be used against you, like you use everything you read about other people against themselves.
Your smile slowly fades, as the weeks pass in Riker's Island. You take your pleasure where you can get it. You incite your cellmate to beat up a woman who's been accosting her, and your cellmate goes into isolation, and you get the cell all to yourself. You convert another prisoner into some obscure anti-materialistic religion you once read about, so she'll give you a few chocolate bars she's been scrounging away. The woman who tried to rape your cellmate tries the same with you, and within five minutes, you have her on the floor of the shower room, weeping like there was no tomorrow, without ever having even touched her, as you bring up buried memories of her dead son, her harsh parents who beat her almost daily, the disappointment in the eyes of her lover after she was found guilty of murder... And you smile, Karla Sofen. You smile, because you're in control of the situation. You know that you know the other inmates better than they know themselves, and they're at your mercy. You take your pleasure where you can get it, and you can get it from knowing that you're in control.
But being in control of the other inmates isn't enough when the day comes. The hour comes. You're escorted out of your cell. And as your footsteps ring out hollowly against the stone floor, and the priest walks before you, reciting some prayers, you realize something.
You're afraid, Karla Sofen.
You're afraid.
As much as you try to deny it, when you reach the last room you'll ever be in, and see the chair, your eyes widen in terror. You suddenly realize that it isn't you who's in control. You're not in control. You can't do anything about this situation. Not a cursed thing. Not one single thing. Your breathing goes shallow. Your head starts going dizzy, your eyes blurring. Your mouth is dry, your lips cracking.
You're not in control.
You're not in control.
You're not in control.
Those words ring thru your mind, time and time again. You struggle helplessly, screaming and resisting, but it doesn't help, as you're put in the chair, and restraints put on to hold you in place. You scream in terror, tears streaming down your eyes. You don't want to go. You don't want to die. You must be in control. You have to be in control. You have to be. You have to be able to control this situation somehow. You must be able to save yourself.
You can't.
You're not in control.
Was it worth it, Karla Sofen? Was it worth it, never to feel anything in your life? Never to feel real friendship. Never to feel love. Never to hold a man in your arms, hearing him whisper in your ear that he loves you, and actually know that he meant it. Never to have anyone who'd be willing to sacrifice their lives for you. Never to find anyone who could fill that empty place in your heart, because you never let anyone in.
You were a cold, calculating woman, Karla Sofen. But you're here, sitting in the chair, anyway. And as you see the doctor in front of you, testing the syringe by squirting a bit of liquid out thru the tip, do you think it was worth it? You're crying, you know. Crying like on another July 4th almost three decades ago, when you were out watching the fireworks on a dark night on the lawn of the house your father had just bought. You tripped on the garden hose, and hit your head on a rock on the ground. You cried so much your father thought you'd never stop. But he held you, and it stopped eventually, and you felt better. Who's going to hold you now, Karla Sofen, now that you've pushed everyone away? Who's going to make things better?
You feel the syringe plunge into your arm, and you scream, scream louder, scream more helplessly, scream in more terror than you've ever felt.
Your life isn't in your own hands anymore, Karla Sofen. It's in other peoples' hands now. And you never trusted anyone but yourself with your life. The only person who could come to do a last-minute rescue is yourself. And you're restrained. You're alone. Did you have dreams, Karla Sofen? Did you ever fantasize of a real life? A husband, children, a house, two cars, a picket fence...?
...no. No, you really didn't, did you? That would have been emotional, thinking about love, happiness, safety, things normal people take for granted. You shut out emotions.
You never felt a warm emotion in your life after your parents died, and you decided that shutting love out, being in control, was the only way to survive.
You feel a cold emotion now, Karla Sofen.
You feel terror, as your throat's raw with screaming, tears streaming down your cheeks.
That will be your last emotion.
"You know", Theresa lightly remarked to Songbird as they dogfighted in the sky, "your constructs're made o' sound." She narrowed her lips, letting out a sharp, inaudible, supersonic whistle. "All I need t' do's produce a counter-wavelength, an'..."
"Oh no!" Melissa gasped, as suddenly the pink wings carrying her aloft dissolved into nothingness, and she fell a few dozen feet, to the ground, the air knocked out of her lungs as she fell onto her back, her eyes blacking out momentarily.
"Way to go, Terry!" Tabitha smiled from across the road, as she saw the last Thunderbolt go down.
"You're...nnff...not getting rid of me...that easily", Melissa growled, as she got up, her backside aching like it had gotten slammed by the Thing.
"Just watch me!" Theresa replied, and swooped down towards Melissa from the sky, pulling her fist back to drop the Thunderbolt down where she was standing.
"There's a word for that where I come from", Melissa muttered, as she waited, watching Theresa approach, and then, at the last moment, grabbed her, and used her forward momentum to throw the redheaded mutant right into Meltdown!
"OOOFF!!"
"UMPHHH!!" Tabitha went, as Theresa slammed against her with the force with which she intended to take Songbird down, and more. The two women collapsed in a heap of tangled arms and legs.
"It's 'stupid'", Melissa said sharply, as she watched, without a smile, her wrestling maneuver succeed.
"Well, you're not gonna get to try that on me, Songbird", Danielle Moonstar said, as she pointed her bow and arrow, both of seething psionic energy, towards Melissa.
"I won't have to", Songbird simply replied.
"I'm a psychiatrist", came a positively freezing voice behind Danielle. "You think you're going to beat *me* with mindgames??"
Dani whirled around, with reflexes trained for years by the best, but before she got halfway around, a powerful energy pulse erupted outwards from Moonstone, knocking her back by several dozen yards, and she landed roughly on the desert ground, unconscious. "I swear I'm going to kill her", Karla hissed sharply, then sighed and shook her head. Anger wasn't logical. Stay in control. Don't be predictable. Don't be readable. Don't be weak. "Gather them all up, Songbird. I'll go wake up the others."
Melissa nodded once, and a low sonic hum filled the air as she created pink solid-sound ropes, manacles and chains to immobilize X-Force with.
"Josten, get up, you miserable excuse for a soldier!" Moonstone hissed into Atlas ear. "What, you think we're here for a summer camp or something?? Get your butt up right this moment or it's grass and I'm a lawnmower, GET IT?? You think you can just give up and run away into sleepyland? Well, you're wrong!" she snapped harshly. "I won't let you! You think you'll just get kicked out so you can run more if you don't wake up? You're wrong. You're off to clean the toilets with your toothbrush so fast your head will spin off your shoulders if you don't open those eyes RIGHT NOW!"
"Unnh..." Atlas groaned softly, as his eyes started opening, and looked at Karla. "Anyone ever tell you you'd make one hell of a drill sergeant, Moonstone?"
Karla didn't answer, her interest in Atlas having been little other than to get him awake as soon as possible, and she next headed over to MACH-1, and knelt down beside him, rapping her knuckles against his helmet a few times in a knock. "Time to wake up, sleepyhead", she cooed softly. "People are waiting for you at work, Abe. You know they can't get anything done right in there without you there to take care of them. They can't get things going without you, darling. Come on", she said softly, tapping the helmet again a few times.
Abe Jenkins' eyes opened in a flutter, and they looked at Karla confusedly. "I just had the weirdest dream..." he said as he started getting up a bit, and winced slightly as electricity sparked at a few places where the armor had been damaged the most. "I don't think I can do much until I get a chance to work a bit on this armor..."
"We'll have time, Jenkins", Karla simply replied in as cold a tone as she ever wore, and then stood up. "Go make sure Songbird can keep our prisoners secure." She then headed over towards the last fallen Thunderbolt, Jolt.
"Good morning, honey", she whispered softly into Jolt's ear as she picked the teenage girl up, to cradle Jolt softly in her arms. "Mommy's here, Hallie. Mommy's here, and she'll never leave you again, that's a promise. What do you want to do today, honey? Want to go see the Statue of Liberty? Or to a zoo? Or to a concert? I know how you love music, Hallie..."
Some time later, X-Force started waking up, and found themselves not only bound by a variety of bonds by Songbird, but as well held in the mountain-crushing grip of Atlas' gigantic fist.
"And now", Karla said in an icy tone, "whoever you are, you're going to LISTEN to us."
"You think you can hold us?" Roberto asked, his eyes burning brightly with bright white energy, threateningly.
"Cool it, 'Berto", Dani whispered. "If they wanted to kill us, they'd have done it already. I say we hear them out."
"At least *someone* has brains here", Songbird commented dryly.
"Shh, Songbird", Karla said, and then looked over to Dani. "We don't want to hurt you", she then said, simply. "We're not villains. We *were* villains, yes. But we changed, when we posed as heroes. Without us, the planet would be under Zemo's power. WE stopped him, after he mind-controlled the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. If you don't believe us, then you're making a mistake. You can check our story from Iron Man. We only want a chance to show the world that we've turned."
X-Force remained silent for a few moments. "Convenient", Roberto said after a while. "We let you go, we go ask Iron Man, and he says your story's a lie."
Tabitha frowned slightly, thoughtfully.
"Think, 'Berto", Dani said sharply. "If they were still villains, why wouldn't they have killed us while we were unconscious?"
"If they're telling the truth, they deserve a shot at making this work", Jimmy commented.
"Aye", Theresa nodded. "I was a criminal once, wit' me uncle Tom an' the Juggernaut. But I changed me ways."
"Do I have to remind you of...Him, 'Berto?" Dani asked.
Roberto frowned as he was reminded of having been the terrorist Reignfire, and how he was accepted back into X-Force after that. He didn't reply.
"They're telling the truth", Tabitha said after a while.
"How d' you know?" Theresa asked.
"You learn a lot of things in the streets... Like telling what's a lie or a bluff. They're not lying."
Theresa frowned a bit, and then looked over to Moonstone. "All right", she nodded. "We believe you, an' we'll be lettin' ye go."
"Hang on", Dani frowned. "Why did you guys come after us in the first place?" she asked, looking at Karla.
"Because", Songbird interjected, pointing at Roberto, "HE said he was gonna turn us in to SHIELD!"
X-Force, Roberto included, blinked at that statement, and the four other members turned to look at him. "Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten us into", Tabitha remarked.
"I've done no such thing!" Roberto claimed loudly. "I've never seen any of you before!"
Karla turned to look at Melissa, who shook her head emphatically. "It was YOU!" she screamed back. "YOU knocked Abe into a wall, and threatened you'd turn us in!!"
Roberto's eyes narrowed. "When?" he asked sharply.
"After we got off work", MACH-1 replied. "8 pm or so, yesterday."
"But that can't be", Dani interjected. "We were -- We were...uhh..." Then, she blushed slightly, and went quiet.
"Jesus!" Tabitha blinked incredulously. "How often DO you guys go at it???"
Dani just sighed quietly, and looked down for a moment, before looking over to Songbird. "You're the waitress", she finally realized, and blinked. Then, she controlled herself. "Look, I was with 'Berto at that time... There's no way he could have done that. It had to be someone else, impersonating him."
Karla's eyebrow rose a bit, and she frowned thoughtfully, then cursed silently, as her eyes widened. "Oh no", she said quietly, under her breath.
"What's wrong, Moonstone?" Hallie asked, frowning at Karla's expression.
Everyone looked at Karla curiously, but before she could explain, MACH-1's voice said what she was about to. "Zemo", he simply said, taking off his helmet, a grim expression on his face.
"Yes", Karla nodded. "Zemo and Techno." She sighed, and looked towards the town. "They know where we are."
Melissa's eyes widened slightly in fear, even as Erik's forehead furrowed in the same emotion.
Techno snapped his fingers, as he hovered high in the sky, his sensory equipment keeping tabs on X-Force and the Thunderbolts, recording all the available input. "Oh well", he muttered, and his bootjets flared, and he briefly checked all his systems as he soared off thru the clouds, southwards, towards a castle in Mexico, including the recently-used image inducer and voice disguiser circuits. "Baron?" he spoke into the radio link. "Looks like this plan's fallen flat on its face... But don't worry", his mechanical face smiled. "I can Fix things. Ever heard of a guy called Graviton...?" [1]
"...you're sure you don't need any help against this Zemo guy?" Tabitha asked, X-Force having been put down, their bonds dissolved, and the two teams now conversing amicably.
Karla glanced at the expressions of the Thunderbolts, then shook her head. "I don't think we're heading off to confront him anytime soon", she replied, and looked over towards Atlas, knowing how much he inwardly sighed in relief at her statement.
"I'm sorry I blamed you", Melissa told Roberto with an apologetic expression.
"Don't worry about it", Roberto smiled back, and bowed down to take her hand into his, and kiss it lightly. "If it'll lead into meeting you again, you can blame me as often as you want."
"Watch it", Abe snapped at Roberto, and put his arm around Melissa's shoulders, pulling her back a bit from Roberto, and then muttered quietly into Melissa's ear, "At least Techno got him pegged good..."
"Yeah, he's very charming", Melissa smiled innocently at Abe, then wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him passionately. "And you're silly when you're jealous."
Erik sat silently on the ground, the top of his head nonetheless higher than the roof of a one-story house. Jolt sat on his shoulder. "...mutants, huh?" she asked Jimmy. "I've never met a mutant. Well, except for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, but that wasn't a meeting, really..."
Jimmy grinned slightly. "And I've never met anyone altered by Arnim Zola, so I guess we're even, huh?" He tapped his fist against Erik's thigh. "You pack a pretty mean punch. I don't think even the Juggernaut hit that hard..."
Erik didn't hear the words for a few moments, his eyes locked elsewhere, and then turned to look at Jimmy. "Hu-hm? What'd you say?"
Jimmy's eyes followed Erik's, to where he had been looking, to the redheaded Irish woman, and he smiled slightly. "Beautiful, isn't she?"
"Just...reminded me of someone", Erik replied quietly, looking down at the ground as his thoughts went elsewhere...or rather, were there such a word, elseONE.
"It can be hard leavin' behind all that one's been, all their life", Theresa said to Karla. "Thankfully, me uncle Tom tried t' shield me from his criminal life until he sound out about me mutant powers, so I hadn't been one f'r long before th' X-Men brought me to me Da, an' I changed me life 'round."
"No...no it isn't", Abe replied, as he and Melissa walked closer. "But the choice to turn around is the toughest. Once that's past...the hardest part is behind. Not that the rest's gonna be any cakewalk though, but..." He shrugged a bit.
"Finding a new future is never easy", Roberto commented. "X-Force have been fugitives once or twice ourselves. Thanks to my lovely Danielle, we're on good terms with SHIELD right now, but we've had our scuffles with them."
"'Your' lovely Danielle?" Dani asked, quirking an eyebrow. Roberto smiled and silenced Dani with a light kiss to her pouting lips, and then looked back to Karla. "If there is anything we can do to help --"
"I can try to talk to Bridge and explain your situation", Dani offered.
Karla smiled slightly. "That would be appreciated", she nodded to Dani. "But other than that..." She shook her head. "I don't think there's much you or anyone can do. Besides spread the word. Tell your various X-friends to not attack us on sight."
"We kindasorta ditched'em", Tabitha answered. "We're not much in touch with them anymore."
Karla smiled dryly. "Talk about analogies..." she commented.
"Seems we've both strayed a wee bit from our roots", Theresa smiled in return. "You from your villain friends, an' us from th' X-Men."
"And we're both trying to make new lives", Hallie smiled.
"Except you're wanted fugitives", James said, "and we're not. And, ironically enough, you try to make a new life in one place, while we try to make a new life 'on the run', in a way."
Hallie smiled faintly. "Weird, isn't it, how things go?"
"Speakin' o' goin'", Theresa interrupted, "we'd best be gettin' on our way if we want t' make it to the next town 'fore sunset. It was a pleasure meetin' ye, Dr. Sofen", she said, briefly shaking Karla's hand.
Karla didn't reciprocate with another pleasantry, but instead looked to Dani, briefly. Then to Roberto, even more briefly, and then nodded, once. "Thunderbolts -- let's go back home."
Erik shrank back to normal human size, and Melissa hummed softly, forming a solid-sound platform which carried him, Abe and Hallie, then lifted off into the air, Karla flying southwards alongside the others.
X-Force gathered their backpacks and other things from the side of the road, and then glanced up and down the road. Tabitha frowned, and sighed. "Still no car in sight", she commented, and started trudging northwards along the road. "I really hate this."
"You hate everything, Tabitha."
"No I don't. I like a good, hot, long bath. And a soft bed. And a %& $@&£ car that actually WORKS."
"Okay, *almost* everything."
"Oh shut up."
"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer..."
"SHUT UP!" came several voices.
High in the air, the Thunderbolts kept flying back towards Boulder, and Moonstone glanced back over her shoulder, towards X-Force walking off. They were a family. She had seen it in them. In their gestures, in their tones, in their words, in their everything. X-Force was a family.
She then glanced to her side, at the four Thunderbolts, and by the way they were talking, chatting and smiling at each other, she knew that they -- if not yet, then at the very least soon -- would be one, too. Except for her.
You can never have a family, Karla Sofen. You can't make that commitment. You can't love and live with others. To you, there is always...only yourself. And you know that when you get sentenced to death, one day, there won't be anyone to put their life on the line to save you.
And that, in the end, is the saddest part, Karla. X-Force and Thunderbolts might all at the moment be torn from their roots, but the thing is, as long as there's life, there's hope. And the roots will regrow. If not to some place, then to the people around you. It's human nature to grow attached to places and people. It's human nature to live and love.
And you deny yourself that. You deny yourself the family, and the chance for love that might one day save you. You're a cold and calculating woman, Karla Sofen. And that is why you will always be ruthless and...
...rootless.
[1] For more on Graviton, see THUNDERBOLTS #17