Pulse, Part Eight

by Tangerine

"What is it?!" Betsy hollered over the sharp wail of the alarm. Bobby screamed something, but she simply shrugged, having not heard a word of it. It was late at night, and dawn was still hours away. "Intruders?!"

Bobby stared at her and pointed to his ears before hollering, "I think we have intruders!"

Betsy didn't understand a word of it. "I think we have intruders!"

Suddenly, an eerie silence settled in the house, and they stared at each other. Bobby was off first, running where Betsy could not, and she wobbled after him, tying her blue robe and flattening her tangled hair. After three hours of struggling with sleep before finally achieving it, she was not amused.

Bobby's scream echoed down the halls, and Betsy hurried her wobbling form down the corridors, a deep pit of dread turning her stomach to butterflies. She sailed around the corner to find herself face to face with a weapon.

"Domino?" She gasped, out of breath and using the wall as her only support. Bobby was lying on the ground, back flat on the carpet and a long sword pointed under his chin. Betsy vaguely recognised the youth as part of X-Force, yet she couldn't recall for the life of her what name attached to the body. "Are you mad?"

The white-skinned woman looked suspiciously at Betsy, her dark eyes falling on the obvious swell of her pregnant belly. Domino grinned, sliding her pistol into its holder and nodding to the red-haired boy, who pulled his sword from Bobby's throat.

"Have you seen Nate?" She asked abruptly, the man stepping in line behind her and saying nothing. Betsy found herself paying very little attention to Domino and instead focussing on the solemn youth. Warren had looked at the world the same way for a time, lost in it, lost in himself.

Bobby stood up and brushed himself off. "We haven't seen much of anybody lately. The entire X-Men team has disappeared, save for us and Gambit, and god knows where he is. According to Cerebro, X-Force is gone, too."

"Nate left months ago with most of the team while I was otherwise disposed. His note was that he'd gone to help the X-Men. I had hoped your message meant they were back. I see that isn't the case," Domino said roughly, staring still at Betsy. "Who's baby?"

Betsy looked at her with horror before remembering, calmly, that Domino had most likely been out of the X-Men loop for quite some time, so she would have to answer this question and potentially harder ones. "Warren Worthington's."

"Is he here?" Domino looked up and down the empty halls, ill-at-ease and trying hard to hide it. There was something wrong in this house, with the people it held within its walls, with the way it stood lifelessly despite the creatures dwelling inside.

"Of all the insensitive things ..."

Bobby stopped when Betsy caught him by the wrist.

"Warren died several months ago, after battling a long illness," Betsy said quietly, her fingers straying to her baby, stroking the firm flesh through her robe. Very soon, her baby would be born, she just had to hold on and wait. It would all be okay. She had faith. "We did not expect you to know that."

Domino nodded graciously. "My condolences, then, on your loss." She looked around again as the boy behind her mirrored the movements before letting his eyes rest in place, watching Betsy with a curious fascination. "Shatty, this is Psylocke and Iceman."

Shatterstar. Betsy recalled it now. They had met on occasion, but he had been somewhat of a dolt, and she could never tolerate that overwhelming sense of innocence he held about him for long. Now, she could almost appreciate his childish knowledge of this world.

"I am grateful to meet you," Shatterstar said awkwardly, two long, double-bladed swords clutched in either hand. Domino motioned for him to stand down, but he would not budge. Instead, he watched with wary eyes.

"I found Shatty back at the hideout, waiting for someone to come back, so there's only two of us" Domino said, leaning against the wall with her muscular legs and arm tightly crossed. "But from what I gather, you're desperate."

"Only if some villain has the inkling to attack," Betsy replied, walking into the living room, gesturing for Bobby to follow. The members of X-Force were close behind, and Shatterstar finally laid down his arms. "Until this child is born, I am out of commission."

"Where's the Cajun?"

"Where Cajuns go when they have time to kill," Bobby replied dryly. "How the hell should we know? It's not as if he's bothered telling anyone where he went. Hell, no, he just ups and disappears!"

Domino smirked and sat on the large ottoman, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her muscled thighs. "You and Gumbo sleeping together, Iceman? Did he run off and forget to say goodbye?"

Bobby spluttered, searching for words before being forced to settle on a simple, "no."

"The sun is rising," Shatterstar said abruptly, blinking at the crescent of gold as it crept over the horizon slowly with its secrets. It was a thin attempt to change the subject, to avoid having someone else be subjected to Domino's sharply acute sense of humour.

"You must both be hungry," Betsy said, pushing to her feet with her hands on the armrest. "I'll admit to being famished myself." Betsy paused and brought her hand to her head, the sliver of sunlight piercing her eyes. She could say no more.

"Betts?" Bobby asked, jumping up and grabbing her by the elbow, steadying her. She looked at him, and he looked back at her, deeply concerned that she was in trouble yet again. "What is it?"

"Nothing." She smiled falsely and patted his head. With the touch, she broke through the flimsy shields his mind had erected over the years and calmed him, making him forget his worry. "Come, let us eat."

Bobby nodded mutely and walked into the kitchen. Shatterstar followed, laying his swords on the table before passing into the other room, and Domino was left with Betsy, staring coldly at the telepath.

"I saw that," Domino said quietly. "Do you X-Men not have rules against such things?"

Betsy looked at her, her dark eyes as cold and empty as the shadows. "Xavier and Jean, perhaps, but I was never like them. Why should I not take away pain and worry from a dear friend? Is it not enough that he no longer sleeps at night because he is fearful for me? Or that he has lost weight and skeletonised because of his sadness? You are wrong to mock him as you do just as you are wrong to judge me for my actions."

"I am not judging you, Psylocke," Domino replied simply, one ivory hand brushing back the ebony strands of her spiky, short hair. "I was just acknowledging that our methods seem more similar than any tedious agreement I ever had with Xavier. But know, Psylocke, if you should ever try that with me, I might not be so understanding."

"Your threats are not needed, Beatrice. I do not consider you a friend as of yet," Betsy replied with equal severity then faltered, remembering that she had not always been like this. "Domino, Bobby is making breakfast for you right now, and you have been travelling for many hours. I need a few moments to rest. I am tired."

"I bet you are," Domino said before turning away from the telepath, her nerves on fire as they screamed to be far from Psylocke. Domino had seen many things in her life and had faced many more, but there was something about this women that unsettled her, that made her fear.

When she had left, Betsy sighed deeply and went to the window, laying her head against the cold glass. Already clouds had begun to form, and she knew it would rain for the rest of the day. The threat of sunlight was gone, the pain it caused her to sit in it freed from her day. She had done it out of fear days ago and regretted it bitterly. Now, she ran away from it in fear, and she was safe.

Meanwhile, Bobby was in the kitchen, entertaining the new members of their budding team. "We really appreciate this, you know. Betsy, she may not seem like it, but she and I need all the help we can get. We aren't really leader types."

"I know," Domino responded, pouring herself a second cup of coffee. "I have some experience, if you need me. Nate and I have been co-leading X-Force for some time now. Of course, my damn team is missing."

Bobby pushed the eggs around in the frying pan with a plastic spatula and looked at the quiet youth, who listened without a word spoken. "How did you manage to avoid that fate? The reason I'm left is because Warren was drunk out of his mind, making a fool of himself in a bar, and I had to rescue him."

"I was ill with the influenza," Shatterstar said slowly, looking suspiciously at Bobby. He had no skill when it came to conversation, so people rarely asked him to talk, and when they did, he sensed it was usually for comedic purposes. "Cable assured me he would not be gone long."

"God, it's inherited!" Bobby exclaimed with exasperation, laughing ruefully as he shook his head. "Those Summers have an incredible power to underestimate time. When we were kids, Scott would always assure me our training sessions wouldn't take long then next thing you know I would be there for six hours. They have no concept of it all."

Domino looked up from her cup. "But this is beyond acceptable, Iceman. I don't know about you, but I haven't heard a word one way or the other in months. This isn't like Nate. He doesn't just vanish."

"No," Bobby replied, shovelling the eggs onto various plates, "neither does Scott. I just don't want to think about it anymore. I mean, I can either hope they're just somewhere far off where communication is impossible, or fear that they're all lying dead on some battlefield. I want the former, thank you."

Domino put her mug down with disgust and stalked off without another word. Shatterstar watched her leave and wanted to follow, but he knew that she would not appreciate his gesture and would be annoyed by it. Instead, he remained in place.

"How long have you been on Earth?" Bobby asked, sitting down across from the young man and putting a plate in front of him. "What a bizarre thing to say. I didn't realise until just now that normal people don't ask things like that."

"You are not normal," Shatterstar replied. "You are a mutant."

Bobby smiled and nodded his head, shovelling a fork full of eggs into his open mouth in between words. "Point taken, but you have to admit, other than that, we're pretty normal. We have all the parts, right? I already gave this speech today, but trust me, normal is all in the eye of the beholder. So how long?"

"Several years," Shatterstar replied, eating his food carefully.

"You're from Mojoverse, right?"

Shatterstar nodded, wondering why Iceman was so insistent on pushing his conversational skills to their limit. He did not care for the act of chatting. He considered it to be a nuisance. It was a waste of otherwise productive time.

"Longshot was from there. Have you ever met him?"

Shatterstar nodded again.

"He's a cool guy, though god knows what happened to him. He and Ali used to contact us all the time then all of a sudden it just stopped. Dazzler was pregnant last time we talked to them and that was well over nine months ago." Bobby paused and looked at Shatterstar, who was staring at him. "I'm probably boring you with this."

"It is all right," Shatterstar replied, lowering his eyes back to his plate.

They ate in silence for the rest of the meal simply because Bobby had sensed that he was annoying the X-Force member with his incessant talking, but Bobby was overly grateful for his appearance and wanted to hear a voice other than his own.

"Is Shatterstar you real name?"

"It is a stage name," the youth replied, laying his fork carefully atop his plate as he had been told to do by Teresa the last time they had gone to dinner. Very slowly, he had begun to remember the countless rules of etiquette he had been taught.

"What's your real name?"

Shatterstar looked at Bobby skeptically, who seemed genuinely interested in his answer, yet still he shook his head, refusing to give the name Rictor had informed him was far too effeminate for earth. He would not be used for comedic purposes again, not by a stranger.

"Hey, my middle name is Lesley, all right?" Bobby said lightly, laughing as he thrust the plates into the sink, wincing when he thought they would shatter. To his relief, they did not. "Bad names improve character, I think."

"You will laugh at me," Shatterstar said distastefully.

"Honestly, I wouldn't," Bobby said seriously, his voice dropping as he looked at Shatterstar, realising that despite the fact Bobby was an X-Man and Shatterstar was on X-Force, there could not be more than a few years between them in age. His grey eyes seemed very old to Bobby, and Iceman turned away from them. "You know, if it bugs you that much, forget about it. It's really not important."

Without understanding why, Shatterstar replied quietly despite his initial wariness. "My name is Gaveedra Seven."

"Does anybody ever call you that?"

"No," Shatterstar replied, "I have been in the games all my life."

"Your friends don't call you Gaveedra?"

"I do not have friends," Shatterstar replied awkwardly, "save for Julio and he called me Shatterstar or Shatty, and I try to call him Rictor because he does not like Julio. I have teammates, but it is not the same thing."

"No, it's not," Bobby replied with a sigh. "Listen, I have to get out of this house before I go mad. You want to come with me into town? There's not much to do, but you seem like you need a break just as much as me. It might even be fun."

"All right. I will dress in common clothing then," Shatterstar said, suspicion etched deeply in his voice. With Julio gone, he had expected never to find another friend, yet it seemed like this X-Man was trying something akin to friendship, but he could not understand why Iceman would want to befriend him. He tried not to think about it. "I will meet you here in fifteen minutes?"

"Sounds good." Bobby smiled warmly, sensing the level of mistrust Shatterstar held within him and directed at Bobby. He dismissed it carefully, hoping he understood why the young man was so reluctant to think himself worthy company.

Bobby washed the dishes slowly, too lazy to load the dishwasher, and looked up when Betsy entered the kitchen, looking tired and worn. She picked up a peach and bit into it, inhaling the delicious fragrance of the fuzzy fruit.

"You are going out?" She asked, sitting down at the table and gazing out the window. "It is raining."

"So I noticed, but I need to get out of here, Betsy. It's stifling me, this waiting and worrying routine. I just have to spend a few hours away from this tomb, you know?" Bobby shrugged. "I guess it's a bit hard to explain."

"I understand," Betsy assured him. "It was nice of you to invite the boy along."

"He's hardly a boy," Bobby replied, "though he's not much for talking."

Betsy looked at Bobby oddly, and he stared back at her, unsure of what her eyes were trying to imply. "He's an innocent, and they are rare and far apart. He reminds me a lot of you. I find it touching you are trying to take him under his wing."

"Is that what I'm doing?" Bobby asked, drying the plates with a blue cloth.

"Yes," Betsy replied with a gentle smile and stood up, hugging him tightly because she loved him like a brother. She lay her head against his and felt him relax in her grip, his fingers suddenly still and resting on the dishes. "Someday, Bobby, your actions will make sense to you, and this world will have reason restored to it."

"I hope so," Bobby replied quietly. "I hope so."

[next part]

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