lisaroquin (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lisaroquin) wrote in ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} lisaroquin_fic,@ 2008-09-01 18:58:00 |
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FIC: Dealing with Detours--15-Xmen/SG1/SGA- gen 1/2
title: Dealing with Detours
author: lisa roquin
rating: 15+
fandom: Xmen/Stargate SG1/Stargate: Atlantis
characters/pairings: Logan, Gambit, Chamber, Iceman, Storm, SG1 (circa S8) SGA (circa early S1)
disclaimer: all copyrighted characters and their "universes" belong to their respective authors, writers, creators, production companies, producers and long lists of people that are so very much not me. Quite simply, if you recognize it, it isn't mine. No profit made, no harm intended, just having fun.
summary: “Welcome to earth, that was one hell of an entrance, care to tell me what that was?” “Eart’ thought was s’poster go to some ot’er planet?”
warning: nothing out of what could possibly make it onto the shows or into the comics.
author's note: for mymatedave for the birthday goodies
wordcount: 10,200+ (split for length)
~Is there any way out of the room?~ Charles Xavier’s voice touched the minds of his five trapped X-men.
~The room’s made of some sort of Adamantium, Chuck, sealed tight. Just us and this big ring. I can’t cut our way out. Icecube can’t freeze it either.~
~Ring?~
Charles Xavier’s eyes widened as he recognized the image that was mentally sent to him by Logan. ~There maybe a way out. I can’t guarantee where it will take you but we will be looking. The ring creates a vortex of sorts. There was one on Shi’ar. Gambit, carefully charge the ring, do not let it explode, just charge it, it acts like a superconductor.~
~Wouldn’t it be better if Stormy did it?~
~Ororo?~
~I can do it.~
~Very well, Chamber, you need to dial it. Move it til it locks seven times. Each one of the V shaped spaces will glow when you have a lock. Hurry~ Charles watched the clock. They had four minutes. Four minutes and God only knew where his X-men would end up if they managed to get through the Forbidden Ring as it was called on Shi’ar.
~Ya damn well better find us, Chuck~
He felt a wave of relief as the link to his X-men was severed by incomprehensible distance all of thirty seconds before the laboratory was covered by a thousand feet of ice, Cerebro‘s sensors picking up the explosion far beneath the ice.. They’d made it out. They’d made it through the Ring.
~*~Unscheduled Off-world Activation~*~
The klaxons sounded their warning.
“The iris won’t shut, sir!” Sgt. Davis said hands and eyes moving frantically over the controls in front of him.
“Be ready!” General Jack O’Neill ordered the SF’s in the gate room.
Two very battered young men came through half dragging, half carrying an injured cocoa skinned woman between them. A short stocky man on their heels dragging a woozy looking youth covered in black bandages.
“Kid, the fall out’s gonna follow us through ya gotta block it.”
A blade slid out between the short man’s knuckles and sliced the black wrappings. The kid he was dragging had only half a face the lower half of his face and his throat were swirling light? Half light? That was new.
“YES! YOU CAN!” The short stocky one snarled as if the kid with swirling light for a face had said something then looked over his shoulder. “Icecube!”
“I’se got Stormy,” The auburn haired man said.
The blonde shifted his share of the woman’s weight to the other man and …
“Okay, that’s new too,” Jack O’Neill blinked as the blonde kid turned into what looked to be solid ice. A veritable river of ice flew from the kid’s hands forcing it’s way back through the stargate as the air seemed to get impossibly dry.
“He’s sucking the moisture from the air and turning it to ice.”
Jack nodded. He hadn’t noticed Daniel and Sam enter the Gate Control room, but Sam’s words made sense.
“Jono, cher, de ice might’ no’ be ‘nough gotta try.”
“CHAMBER, DAMNIT! WE NEED IT SHIELDED!” the guy made of ice shouted.
“KID!” the short one bellowed.
“You can do it, Jonathan,” the woman called out in a pained voice. “Please, we’ve made it this far, we need you to do this.”
The kid with half a face shook as he sent the energy out from himself and formed a bubble around the gate.
The explosion shook the SGC, huge chunks of ice forced their way through the gate before the connection disengaged itself slamming into the energy bubble that the kid put up.
“Welcome to earth, that was one hell of an entrance, care to tell me what that was?” Jack said into the intercom from the control room over looking the gate room. He waved when the one with the half glowy face he was recovering in rubber bandages pointed.
“Eart’ thought was s’poster go to some ot’er planet?” the auburn haired one frowned
“Where are you from?” Jack asked.
“Me, I from N’awlins. Wolvie be from Canada some where’s in de wild. Stormy from Africa. Icecube be from New York. And Chamber from London. Where are we?”
“Colorado. Guests of the United States Air Force.” Jack offered. That...really didn’t seem to make them all that happy. In fact, the wary surrounding them seemed to up tenfold.
Short and stocky growled and unsheathed his claws again.
“That looks painful,” Jack winced watching the metal knives slide out of flesh.
“And you and your soldiers will find out just how damn painful if you think you’re gonna do any experiments on Storm and the kids! I owe your government for these.”
Jack blinked. “Oookay. Well, no one’s going to do any experiments. You have my word. My name’s General Jack O’Neill. I’m the CO of the base. We--well, we are going to have to have some blood samples, just to clear that you don’t have anything contagious, and I’m thinking our Medical officer would like some X-rays or Cat scans or something to that effect. We will keep you on the base, I’m sorry but…security. The Stargate is not public knowledge, it is the best kept secret on the planet, and well…the glowy stuff is really not …”
“Not what? Mutants hunted here?” the one with the claws growled.
“Mutants? That what you folks are?” Jack asked.
“Yeah,” Claws nodded.
“We don’t have mutants here,” Jack said and resented the kick Daniel gave his ankle out of view of their visitors. Daniel was a mutant and Jack had told him so more than once. He had a mutant brain, but he wasn’t whatever these guys were.
“Dis ain’ our eart’,” the auburn haired one frowned.
“Don’ look like it, Gumbo.” Claws snorted.
“You folks got names?” Jack prompted.
“I’m Wolverine. The Cajun is Gambit. That’s Iceman. That’s Chamber and that’s Storm.”
“Those sound more like code names than names.”
“They are but that’s what you get.”
“Well, there’s this thing called Temporal Cascade Effect. Only one version of a person can exist in one reality. Otherwise they die, and maybe the reality goes boom. I can let Carter here yap til you’re cross-eyed with the interdimensional quantum physics gobbledygook but that’s the basics of it.”
“Remy LeBeau,” the Cajun said after a long minute.
“Thank you, birth date?” Jack prompted.
“Don’ know.”
“How old are you?” Jack frowned.
“Don’ know. Mebbe twenny five? No’ any younger dan twennytwo. Can’ be. Mebbe as old as twenny seven.” Remy shrugged.
“Ororo Munro. I’m thirty-five.” the woman said weakly and offered her birth date and that of Jonathan Starsmore, all of nineteen. The ice-guy was Robert Drake, all of twenty-eight though their ages and birthdates didn’t correspond to the current date.
“And you?” Jack asked the one with the claws.
“Logan. Don’ know if that’s my first name or my last. Logan’s all I remember. Don’t know how old I am either. Least a hundred and sixty. Hard telling’ they screwed with my head when they gave me these. Erased a lot of stuff, scrambled some more. Implanted false memories on top of that.”
“A hundred and sixty?” Jack said disbelievingly.
“Healing factor.”
“What?”
Logan raised one of his claws and sliced his cheek, which immediately started to heal.
“Huh.” Jack gaped. “Nice thing to have.”
“Not really when you recover from a bullet between the eyes but your buddy next to you doesn’t.”
~*~*~
~I linked us all~ Jono’s voice came in Remy’s mind.
~Dey spooked but de one doin’ de talkin’ not sensing anything t’reaten’in from him. T’ink we okay for now from what I’m feelin’~
~Yeh, don’t smell bad, just spooked.~
~We need to stay together though~ Storm thought then struggled to stand on her own power, ignoring the pain from her injuries she drew upon her elemental abilities. Wind swirled through the gate room and raised her a foot off the floor. “General O’Neill, we have no wish to harm you, nor any of your people, we can and will defend ourselves and we will not be separated. We arrived here wholly by accident, we only used the ring as a last chance to save our own lives.”
“Well, that’s fine, we’ll all play nice.” Jack agreed.
Storm collapsed.
“Damn fool woman. Where’s your doc? She’s banged up bad.” Logan growled.
~*~*~
“Carter, check the names and birthdates. Daniel, you come with me.” Jack ordered.
The four men didn’t argue when they were pushed back by the medical staff. The other three seemed to look at the one that called himself LeBeau for a moment then all nodded and backed out of the way.
“We need--”
“We’re human, bub, the X-gene causes the mutation. Different in everyone. ‘Roro ain’t no different than any of you, her mutation isn’t physical other than her hair. She’s an Elemental Weather Witch, but the mutation didn’t effect her physically. Not like the kids.”
“X-gene.”
“Homo Sapiens Superior is what the scientists dubbed us, next stage of human evolution. The X-gene is triggered by extreme emotional or physical trauma during puberty in most. That’s what happened with those two. Storm was born with her abilities just got stronger as she got older. Gumbo was born with his mutations.”
“You look normal to me.” Jack stared at the tall young man.
“Oui, I can pass,” he said. “Long as I got m’ sunglasses,” he took the dark shades off revealing red on black eyes. “Born wit’ dese eyes. Firs’ I remember was in de Antiquary’s zoo. Escaped from dere an’ lived on de streets a few years. Dey called me Le Diable Blanc cause of m’ eyes.”
“The White Devil,” Daniel automatically translated.
“Even I could figure that much out,” Jack grumbled with an eye roll.
“Mon Pere caught me tryin’ to pick his pocket. Took me home an’ kep’ me. ‘Dopted me. Guessed I was mebbe ten or leben. Dere ot’er t’ings too. Muscle to bone more like a cat dan a man. Got couple extra vertebra too.”
“What’s your father’s name?” Daniel asked/
“Jean Luc LeBeau, Patriarch of de T’ieves guild. He was born in 1839.”
“Is she allergic to anything?” Warner wanted to know.
“Ain’ her doc, but nah, nothing I can think of.” Logan shrugged
The blonde kid who was a good ten years older than he looked and the auburn haired young man shook their heads. Both adding that they’d never heard of anything that Storm was allergic to either.
“She needs to go to surgery, there’s internal bleeding.”
“Do it.” the one that called himself Logan said.
“Do you guys want to get checked over?”
“I iced up. I’m fine.”
Logan snorted.
“Nothin got past Chamber’s shields. Stormy was hurt before we got to her.”
“You sure?”
The four men nodded.
~Just bleedin’ tired mate,~
“Jono’s a telepath. Only way he can communicate. He doesn’t have a mouth anymore,” Bobby said.
Jack blinked. “So do you eat?”
~Nope, don’ eat, can’ sleep unless s someone lets me in their head when they go to sleep and take me along with them. Don’t have a pulse. Don’t breathe. Most my internal organs have been replaced by pure psionic energy.~
“That’s…got to…suck,” Jack said trying to wrap his mind around the concept of what the boy had said.
~Yeah it does, mate,~
“Rest of us have reactions to medications an’ Storm’s physically normal. But don’t go attemptin much with any of us. Gumbo’s the worst for reactions. Not much you can do with those two and me.”
~*~*~*~
“Well, Carter?” Jack asked forty-eight hours later.
Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter shook her head slowly. “Absolutely no matches that I could find, sir, and none of them have shown any sign of Temporal Cascade Syndrome…”
“So, that’s one less thing. The lab stuff? They human?”
“Yes, initial blood tests show they are human. A CAT scan of Mr. Starsmore has been an impossibility due to the Psionic energy that seems to make up about 35-40% of his body. He has no pulse. He has no circulatory system and minimal blood. Sir, I’m not sure he is technically living.”
“Looks alive to me, just half glowy.”
“Sir.”
“Well, the kid ain’t dead,” Jack gave her a look that dared her to argue with that. “You’re trying to say he’s a zombie?”
“It is a medical impossibility for him to be living, sir.”
“Yeah, well, impossible goes with the territory around here, Carter. The others?”
“Mr. LeBeau does in deed have abnormal bone density, abnormal muscle to bone ratio, and two extra vertebrae. His eyes also seem to be hyper sensitive to light. His night vision is…far above normal human ability, comparable to a cat perhaps.” Carter shook her head. “He has one wisdom tooth that isn’t completely in.”
“So?”
“So emergence of wisdom teeth is 18 to 21 years of age on average.”
“So--”
“So I’m thinking his estimate of his age of 22-27years calling it 25 for the sake of argument is off. He’s more likely between seventeen and twenty three.”
Jack frowned. “Huh. Can you narrow it down?”
“Probably not. And if we could, it would take far more time consuming and invasive testing than he would likely consent to.”
“Could his teeth just be slow in coming in? Or something with his ---mutation?” Daniel wanted to know.
Carter nodded slowly. “That is possible.”
“He didn’t think he was twenty seven. Thought he was more like 24 or 25. 22 or 23 is still a distinct possibility even with the half-in wisdom tooth.”
Carter nodded in enthusiastic agreement.
Jack looked from one to the other. Who knew that a degree in dentistry might be necessary for a base involved in planetary exploration. “Do we got any dentists?”
“No. Not on base.”
“Are is x-rays able to be sent off base?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it sir,” Warner spoke up.
“Why?”
“His skull is well it’s human, it’s just….interesting.”
“Interesting?”
“I had to do a double take. Just unique.”
“Oookay,” Jack shook his head. “So we’ll call Mr. LeBeau 23? Everyone happy with that?”
Carter and Warner both nodded.
“What else?”
“Ms. Munro is…100% normal of physiology.” Warner began.
“Didn’t they say that when they got here?” Jack frowned.
“Yeah, the did, Jack,” Daniel agreed.
“Mr. Logan is or rather was completely normal of physiology until his skeletal system was fused with adamantium.” Warner continued.
“Huh?” Jack interrupted.
“Only slightly less destructible than naquada based alloys--such as what the stargate is made of Jack.” Daniel said.
“Fused to his skeleton how?” Jack was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like the answer to that.
“He says it occurred during his time as a prisoner of the Weapon X project. A government funded military research project to create the perfect super soldier, his healing factor, as he calls it, is his mutation. He seems to recover from just about anything in disturbingly short periods of time, claims to have recovered from a bullet between the eyes. Evidently they dissected him, while he was conscious. Surgically injected the adamantium into his bones. Rather like the reverse of bone marrow harvesting.” Carter explained.
Jack made a face. “That sounds like…ouch.”
“I can’t imagine the procedure…it had to be incredibly painful,” Warner nodded looking a little green.
“The other one?” Jack prompted.
“Mr. Drake. Is fairly normal of physiology, save for the fact he…is for all intents and purposes nothing more than conscious vapor that can solidify into an approximation of human form.” Warner started again.
“Are you saying the blonde kid is a ghost?” Jack frowned.
“No. Not exactly. His mutation rendered him…extremely changed. You can get DNA material from him. He has control over his form, to the point of having a pulse, functioning digestive system, respitory system. It’s just--unconscious holding of his pervious form. The young man can dissolve into subzero vapors.”
“Are subzero vapors even possible?”
“Think of steam off dry ice, Jack,” Daniel offered.
“Damn,” Jack frowned. “So he’s been like that since his mutation kicked in?”
“No, he’s been like that since he spent time in an alternate world where he had a forced enhancement of his mutation--again by military--that world was in the midst of World War Three. All mutants were rounded up into concentration camps. Useful mutants were used as weapons. He was experimented on and tampered with. He says he put China under 20 miles of ice,” Carter said disbelievingly
“China?” Jack repeated.
Carter nodded. “China.”
“What about the X-gene thingy they were talking about?” Jack wanted to know.
“Dr. Grinkov thinks he has found the genome. Though the sequences where the genome has evidenced itself are in different places on all of them,” Warner spoke up.
“They got different mutations,” Jack said reasonably. ”Wouldn’t it show up in different places? Like Ms. Munro’s hair or LeBeau’s eyes? So if that‘s the gene thingy why wouldn‘t it show up where its making stuff all wonky.”
Dr. Warner and Carter both looked at him stunned. He looked to Daniel who was also gaping. “What?”
“Avoid Dr. Grinkov for a while Jack,” Daniel snorted.
“What? And which one’s Grinkov?”
Carter shook her head.
“Just stay away from lab coats.” Daniel advised.
“So…nothin’ new there,” Jack shrugged. “Alright, so do you think they’re a threat?”
“Medically no. They have no contagions. They’ve been settled into three VIP suites at the end of the corridor on level 30. The SF’s have them contained to that end of the hallway, the hallway is a dead end. They’re allowed to go back and forth between rooms that way. They have been cooperative enough. One of them has stayed at Ms. Munro‘s bedside round the clock, but haven‘t made any demands beyond that.”
“Alright. Carter and Warner’ve done all the scientific gobbledy gook they’re allowed to. Danny, go make nice.”
Daniel gave Jack a disgruntled glare. “Fine, Jack.”
~*~*~
part 2
title: Dealing with Detours
author: lisa roquin
rating: 15+
fandom: Xmen/Stargate SG1/Stargate: Atlantis
characters/pairings: Logan, Gambit, Chamber, Iceman, Storm, SG1 (circa S8) SGA (circa early S1)
disclaimer: all copyrighted characters and their "universes" belong to their respective authors, writers, creators, production companies, producers and long lists of people that are so very much not me. Quite simply, if you recognize it, it isn't mine. No profit made, no harm intended, just having fun.
summary: “Welcome to earth, that was one hell of an entrance, care to tell me what that was?” “Eart’ thought was s’poster go to some ot’er planet?”
warning: nothing out of what could possibly make it onto the shows or into the comics.
author's note: for mymatedave for the birthday goodies
wordcount: 10,200+ (split for length)
~Is there any way out of the room?~ Charles Xavier’s voice touched the minds of his five trapped X-men.
~The room’s made of some sort of Adamantium, Chuck, sealed tight. Just us and this big ring. I can’t cut our way out. Icecube can’t freeze it either.~
~Ring?~
Charles Xavier’s eyes widened as he recognized the image that was mentally sent to him by Logan. ~There maybe a way out. I can’t guarantee where it will take you but we will be looking. The ring creates a vortex of sorts. There was one on Shi’ar. Gambit, carefully charge the ring, do not let it explode, just charge it, it acts like a superconductor.~
~Wouldn’t it be better if Stormy did it?~
~Ororo?~
~I can do it.~
~Very well, Chamber, you need to dial it. Move it til it locks seven times. Each one of the V shaped spaces will glow when you have a lock. Hurry~ Charles watched the clock. They had four minutes. Four minutes and God only knew where his X-men would end up if they managed to get through the Forbidden Ring as it was called on Shi’ar.
~Ya damn well better find us, Chuck~
He felt a wave of relief as the link to his X-men was severed by incomprehensible distance all of thirty seconds before the laboratory was covered by a thousand feet of ice, Cerebro‘s sensors picking up the explosion far beneath the ice.. They’d made it out. They’d made it through the Ring.
~*~Unscheduled Off-world Activation~*~
The klaxons sounded their warning.
“The iris won’t shut, sir!” Sgt. Davis said hands and eyes moving frantically over the controls in front of him.
“Be ready!” General Jack O’Neill ordered the SF’s in the gate room.
Two very battered young men came through half dragging, half carrying an injured cocoa skinned woman between them. A short stocky man on their heels dragging a woozy looking youth covered in black bandages.
“Kid, the fall out’s gonna follow us through ya gotta block it.”
A blade slid out between the short man’s knuckles and sliced the black wrappings. The kid he was dragging had only half a face the lower half of his face and his throat were swirling light? Half light? That was new.
“YES! YOU CAN!” The short stocky one snarled as if the kid with swirling light for a face had said something then looked over his shoulder. “Icecube!”
“I’se got Stormy,” The auburn haired man said.
The blonde shifted his share of the woman’s weight to the other man and …
“Okay, that’s new too,” Jack O’Neill blinked as the blonde kid turned into what looked to be solid ice. A veritable river of ice flew from the kid’s hands forcing it’s way back through the stargate as the air seemed to get impossibly dry.
“He’s sucking the moisture from the air and turning it to ice.”
Jack nodded. He hadn’t noticed Daniel and Sam enter the Gate Control room, but Sam’s words made sense.
“Jono, cher, de ice might’ no’ be ‘nough gotta try.”
“CHAMBER, DAMNIT! WE NEED IT SHIELDED!” the guy made of ice shouted.
“KID!” the short one bellowed.
“You can do it, Jonathan,” the woman called out in a pained voice. “Please, we’ve made it this far, we need you to do this.”
The kid with half a face shook as he sent the energy out from himself and formed a bubble around the gate.
The explosion shook the SGC, huge chunks of ice forced their way through the gate before the connection disengaged itself slamming into the energy bubble that the kid put up.
“Welcome to earth, that was one hell of an entrance, care to tell me what that was?” Jack said into the intercom from the control room over looking the gate room. He waved when the one with the half glowy face he was recovering in rubber bandages pointed.
“Eart’ thought was s’poster go to some ot’er planet?” the auburn haired one frowned
“Where are you from?” Jack asked.
“Me, I from N’awlins. Wolvie be from Canada some where’s in de wild. Stormy from Africa. Icecube be from New York. And Chamber from London. Where are we?”
“Colorado. Guests of the United States Air Force.” Jack offered. That...really didn’t seem to make them all that happy. In fact, the wary surrounding them seemed to up tenfold.
Short and stocky growled and unsheathed his claws again.
“That looks painful,” Jack winced watching the metal knives slide out of flesh.
“And you and your soldiers will find out just how damn painful if you think you’re gonna do any experiments on Storm and the kids! I owe your government for these.”
Jack blinked. “Oookay. Well, no one’s going to do any experiments. You have my word. My name’s General Jack O’Neill. I’m the CO of the base. We--well, we are going to have to have some blood samples, just to clear that you don’t have anything contagious, and I’m thinking our Medical officer would like some X-rays or Cat scans or something to that effect. We will keep you on the base, I’m sorry but…security. The Stargate is not public knowledge, it is the best kept secret on the planet, and well…the glowy stuff is really not …”
“Not what? Mutants hunted here?” the one with the claws growled.
“Mutants? That what you folks are?” Jack asked.
“Yeah,” Claws nodded.
“We don’t have mutants here,” Jack said and resented the kick Daniel gave his ankle out of view of their visitors. Daniel was a mutant and Jack had told him so more than once. He had a mutant brain, but he wasn’t whatever these guys were.
“Dis ain’ our eart’,” the auburn haired one frowned.
“Don’ look like it, Gumbo.” Claws snorted.
“You folks got names?” Jack prompted.
“I’m Wolverine. The Cajun is Gambit. That’s Iceman. That’s Chamber and that’s Storm.”
“Those sound more like code names than names.”
“They are but that’s what you get.”
“Well, there’s this thing called Temporal Cascade Effect. Only one version of a person can exist in one reality. Otherwise they die, and maybe the reality goes boom. I can let Carter here yap til you’re cross-eyed with the interdimensional quantum physics gobbledygook but that’s the basics of it.”
“Remy LeBeau,” the Cajun said after a long minute.
“Thank you, birth date?” Jack prompted.
“Don’ know.”
“How old are you?” Jack frowned.
“Don’ know. Mebbe twenny five? No’ any younger dan twennytwo. Can’ be. Mebbe as old as twenny seven.” Remy shrugged.
“Ororo Munro. I’m thirty-five.” the woman said weakly and offered her birth date and that of Jonathan Starsmore, all of nineteen. The ice-guy was Robert Drake, all of twenty-eight though their ages and birthdates didn’t correspond to the current date.
“And you?” Jack asked the one with the claws.
“Logan. Don’ know if that’s my first name or my last. Logan’s all I remember. Don’t know how old I am either. Least a hundred and sixty. Hard telling’ they screwed with my head when they gave me these. Erased a lot of stuff, scrambled some more. Implanted false memories on top of that.”
“A hundred and sixty?” Jack said disbelievingly.
“Healing factor.”
“What?”
Logan raised one of his claws and sliced his cheek, which immediately started to heal.
“Huh.” Jack gaped. “Nice thing to have.”
“Not really when you recover from a bullet between the eyes but your buddy next to you doesn’t.”
~*~*~
~I linked us all~ Jono’s voice came in Remy’s mind.
~Dey spooked but de one doin’ de talkin’ not sensing anything t’reaten’in from him. T’ink we okay for now from what I’m feelin’~
~Yeh, don’t smell bad, just spooked.~
~We need to stay together though~ Storm thought then struggled to stand on her own power, ignoring the pain from her injuries she drew upon her elemental abilities. Wind swirled through the gate room and raised her a foot off the floor. “General O’Neill, we have no wish to harm you, nor any of your people, we can and will defend ourselves and we will not be separated. We arrived here wholly by accident, we only used the ring as a last chance to save our own lives.”
“Well, that’s fine, we’ll all play nice.” Jack agreed.
Storm collapsed.
“Damn fool woman. Where’s your doc? She’s banged up bad.” Logan growled.
~*~*~
“Carter, check the names and birthdates. Daniel, you come with me.” Jack ordered.
The four men didn’t argue when they were pushed back by the medical staff. The other three seemed to look at the one that called himself LeBeau for a moment then all nodded and backed out of the way.
“We need--”
“We’re human, bub, the X-gene causes the mutation. Different in everyone. ‘Roro ain’t no different than any of you, her mutation isn’t physical other than her hair. She’s an Elemental Weather Witch, but the mutation didn’t effect her physically. Not like the kids.”
“X-gene.”
“Homo Sapiens Superior is what the scientists dubbed us, next stage of human evolution. The X-gene is triggered by extreme emotional or physical trauma during puberty in most. That’s what happened with those two. Storm was born with her abilities just got stronger as she got older. Gumbo was born with his mutations.”
“You look normal to me.” Jack stared at the tall young man.
“Oui, I can pass,” he said. “Long as I got m’ sunglasses,” he took the dark shades off revealing red on black eyes. “Born wit’ dese eyes. Firs’ I remember was in de Antiquary’s zoo. Escaped from dere an’ lived on de streets a few years. Dey called me Le Diable Blanc cause of m’ eyes.”
“The White Devil,” Daniel automatically translated.
“Even I could figure that much out,” Jack grumbled with an eye roll.
“Mon Pere caught me tryin’ to pick his pocket. Took me home an’ kep’ me. ‘Dopted me. Guessed I was mebbe ten or leben. Dere ot’er t’ings too. Muscle to bone more like a cat dan a man. Got couple extra vertebra too.”
“What’s your father’s name?” Daniel asked/
“Jean Luc LeBeau, Patriarch of de T’ieves guild. He was born in 1839.”
“Is she allergic to anything?” Warner wanted to know.
“Ain’ her doc, but nah, nothing I can think of.” Logan shrugged
The blonde kid who was a good ten years older than he looked and the auburn haired young man shook their heads. Both adding that they’d never heard of anything that Storm was allergic to either.
“She needs to go to surgery, there’s internal bleeding.”
“Do it.” the one that called himself Logan said.
“Do you guys want to get checked over?”
“I iced up. I’m fine.”
Logan snorted.
“Nothin got past Chamber’s shields. Stormy was hurt before we got to her.”
“You sure?”
The four men nodded.
~Just bleedin’ tired mate,~
“Jono’s a telepath. Only way he can communicate. He doesn’t have a mouth anymore,” Bobby said.
Jack blinked. “So do you eat?”
~Nope, don’ eat, can’ sleep unless s someone lets me in their head when they go to sleep and take me along with them. Don’t have a pulse. Don’t breathe. Most my internal organs have been replaced by pure psionic energy.~
“That’s…got to…suck,” Jack said trying to wrap his mind around the concept of what the boy had said.
~Yeah it does, mate,~
“Rest of us have reactions to medications an’ Storm’s physically normal. But don’t go attemptin much with any of us. Gumbo’s the worst for reactions. Not much you can do with those two and me.”
~*~*~*~
“Well, Carter?” Jack asked forty-eight hours later.
Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter shook her head slowly. “Absolutely no matches that I could find, sir, and none of them have shown any sign of Temporal Cascade Syndrome…”
“So, that’s one less thing. The lab stuff? They human?”
“Yes, initial blood tests show they are human. A CAT scan of Mr. Starsmore has been an impossibility due to the Psionic energy that seems to make up about 35-40% of his body. He has no pulse. He has no circulatory system and minimal blood. Sir, I’m not sure he is technically living.”
“Looks alive to me, just half glowy.”
“Sir.”
“Well, the kid ain’t dead,” Jack gave her a look that dared her to argue with that. “You’re trying to say he’s a zombie?”
“It is a medical impossibility for him to be living, sir.”
“Yeah, well, impossible goes with the territory around here, Carter. The others?”
“Mr. LeBeau does in deed have abnormal bone density, abnormal muscle to bone ratio, and two extra vertebrae. His eyes also seem to be hyper sensitive to light. His night vision is…far above normal human ability, comparable to a cat perhaps.” Carter shook her head. “He has one wisdom tooth that isn’t completely in.”
“So?”
“So emergence of wisdom teeth is 18 to 21 years of age on average.”
“So--”
“So I’m thinking his estimate of his age of 22-27years calling it 25 for the sake of argument is off. He’s more likely between seventeen and twenty three.”
Jack frowned. “Huh. Can you narrow it down?”
“Probably not. And if we could, it would take far more time consuming and invasive testing than he would likely consent to.”
“Could his teeth just be slow in coming in? Or something with his ---mutation?” Daniel wanted to know.
Carter nodded slowly. “That is possible.”
“He didn’t think he was twenty seven. Thought he was more like 24 or 25. 22 or 23 is still a distinct possibility even with the half-in wisdom tooth.”
Carter nodded in enthusiastic agreement.
Jack looked from one to the other. Who knew that a degree in dentistry might be necessary for a base involved in planetary exploration. “Do we got any dentists?”
“No. Not on base.”
“Are is x-rays able to be sent off base?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it sir,” Warner spoke up.
“Why?”
“His skull is well it’s human, it’s just….interesting.”
“Interesting?”
“I had to do a double take. Just unique.”
“Oookay,” Jack shook his head. “So we’ll call Mr. LeBeau 23? Everyone happy with that?”
Carter and Warner both nodded.
“What else?”
“Ms. Munro is…100% normal of physiology.” Warner began.
“Didn’t they say that when they got here?” Jack frowned.
“Yeah, the did, Jack,” Daniel agreed.
“Mr. Logan is or rather was completely normal of physiology until his skeletal system was fused with adamantium.” Warner continued.
“Huh?” Jack interrupted.
“Only slightly less destructible than naquada based alloys--such as what the stargate is made of Jack.” Daniel said.
“Fused to his skeleton how?” Jack was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like the answer to that.
“He says it occurred during his time as a prisoner of the Weapon X project. A government funded military research project to create the perfect super soldier, his healing factor, as he calls it, is his mutation. He seems to recover from just about anything in disturbingly short periods of time, claims to have recovered from a bullet between the eyes. Evidently they dissected him, while he was conscious. Surgically injected the adamantium into his bones. Rather like the reverse of bone marrow harvesting.” Carter explained.
Jack made a face. “That sounds like…ouch.”
“I can’t imagine the procedure…it had to be incredibly painful,” Warner nodded looking a little green.
“The other one?” Jack prompted.
“Mr. Drake. Is fairly normal of physiology, save for the fact he…is for all intents and purposes nothing more than conscious vapor that can solidify into an approximation of human form.” Warner started again.
“Are you saying the blonde kid is a ghost?” Jack frowned.
“No. Not exactly. His mutation rendered him…extremely changed. You can get DNA material from him. He has control over his form, to the point of having a pulse, functioning digestive system, respitory system. It’s just--unconscious holding of his pervious form. The young man can dissolve into subzero vapors.”
“Are subzero vapors even possible?”
“Think of steam off dry ice, Jack,” Daniel offered.
“Damn,” Jack frowned. “So he’s been like that since his mutation kicked in?”
“No, he’s been like that since he spent time in an alternate world where he had a forced enhancement of his mutation--again by military--that world was in the midst of World War Three. All mutants were rounded up into concentration camps. Useful mutants were used as weapons. He was experimented on and tampered with. He says he put China under 20 miles of ice,” Carter said disbelievingly
“China?” Jack repeated.
Carter nodded. “China.”
“What about the X-gene thingy they were talking about?” Jack wanted to know.
“Dr. Grinkov thinks he has found the genome. Though the sequences where the genome has evidenced itself are in different places on all of them,” Warner spoke up.
“They got different mutations,” Jack said reasonably. ”Wouldn’t it show up in different places? Like Ms. Munro’s hair or LeBeau’s eyes? So if that‘s the gene thingy why wouldn‘t it show up where its making stuff all wonky.”
Dr. Warner and Carter both looked at him stunned. He looked to Daniel who was also gaping. “What?”
“Avoid Dr. Grinkov for a while Jack,” Daniel snorted.
“What? And which one’s Grinkov?”
Carter shook her head.
“Just stay away from lab coats.” Daniel advised.
“So…nothin’ new there,” Jack shrugged. “Alright, so do you think they’re a threat?”
“Medically no. They have no contagions. They’ve been settled into three VIP suites at the end of the corridor on level 30. The SF’s have them contained to that end of the hallway, the hallway is a dead end. They’re allowed to go back and forth between rooms that way. They have been cooperative enough. One of them has stayed at Ms. Munro‘s bedside round the clock, but haven‘t made any demands beyond that.”
“Alright. Carter and Warner’ve done all the scientific gobbledy gook they’re allowed to. Danny, go make nice.”
Daniel gave Jack a disgruntled glare. “Fine, Jack.”
~*~*~
part 2