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?Thaddeus and Emma finally toug base.
?-x-X-x-
Emma had been expeg her and Thaddeus to have this talk at some point, but she had to admit she thought he would have e to her earlier, over the weekend. But she hadn’t taken it personally or anything like that. The White Queen of the Hellfire Club was quite busy in her ht, and it wouldn’t do for them to appear TOO close after everything that had happened on Friday night.
… That said, when Thaddeus had sat down in her offid told her he wanted her to look at his memories of the day instead of discussing Shaw’s death, Emma had to admit that she’d been a little caught off guard. Once she’d actually seen what he’d dealt with though today… well, things made a little bit more sense.
Pulling out of Thaddeus’ mind, having been given ‘safe passage’ through the mental brambles that his sex life with Laura had given him, Emma lets out a shuddering breath. Thaddeus… had had quite the day so far. Perhaps the most eventful day at Empire State Uy since he’d started going there.
“… Sorry about how much I told She-Hulk. I know she’s ly on our side. I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending like it was all some master pn on my part though. Obviously, I had a moment of weakness.”
Emma presses her lips together into a thin line as the first thing Thaddeus says after they finish going over the day’s events is an apology. On the one hand, she could lean into that, make him feel truly trite and more beholden to her. Oher hand… she wasn’t going to do so, even if it might have been the logical move.
“I five you, Thaddeus. In fact, I would go so far as tue that you did nothing wrong. What happened Friday… well, I wish things had gone differently. I wish you hadn’t had to kill a man, even one as ptible as Shaw.”
She means it too. Emma’s heart, what little of it remains, goes out to Thaddeus for the choice he had to make at the Hellfire Ga. It wasn’t surprising that it affected him like it did either. The young man wasn’t a killer… or at least, he hadn’t been. It was, of course, always the pn to have Thaddeus eventually deal with people like the Bck King and Queen, but Emma had thought they would have more time. Clearly, she’d been wrong.
However… the events at the Hellfire Ga were already starting to feel like a histiven the day Thaddeus had just had. Shaw’s death had opened a of worms and those worms were now crawling out of the woodworks and- okay, the metaphor was getting away from her a little bit. Still.
“I don’t know who your nerofessor is, truth be told. And normally that would make her my highest priority. However… your new Biology Professor is much more disturbing to me. Mostly because I reize her.”
Thaddeus frowns at that.
“Madelyne Pryor? Who is she then, really?”
Emma sighs as she shakes her head, her mind flig back to the red-haired visage Thaddeus had shown her in his mind’s eye.
“… Someohe X-Men will probably be very ied in if Ororo Muches wind of her prese ESU. Someone who is supposed to be dead.”
It didn’t make any sehough. Emma didn’t believe in ces, so there had to be some sort of liween ‘Madelyne Pryor’ showing up now and what had happened on Friday. But what? She didn’t think the X-Men had been hiding her all this time only to bust her out now… that wouldn’t make sense.
“Who?”
Right, Thaddeus wasn’t one reciated vagueness eneralities. To be fair, her did Emma. Sighing, the bloelepath shakes her head.
“I only tell you what I know… and what I know is admittedly far more meager than I would prefer. There was aelepath of no small amount of power named Jean Grey. She was strohan me before I met you and said to everohan her mentor… Professor Charles Xavier.”
Emma tell she has Thaddeus’ attention now, as he sits up a bit straighter and leans forward, intrigued.
“I wasn’t involved in all of that mess… trary to what homo sapiens might want to believe, not all of us mutants know each other intimately. Nor are we one big happy family w to wipe out the human race… obviously. In fact, the tragid to Jean Grey’s tale demonstrates that fact rather poignantly. The Brotherhood of Mutants, led by Mago, made some sort of attempt at overthrowing the Uates Gover. Or maybe they were just trying to force the govero throw mutants a few more bones. Depends who you ask. Either way, their strategy was fwed to say the least.”
Thaddeus’ mouth opens and closes like a goldfish for a moment before he finds his voice.
“Wait, but if they actually tried to overthrow the US gover, surely we would have heard something about that?”
Emma just raises an eyebrow at him.
“The Brotherhood ARE sidered a domestic terrorist anization for a reason, Thaddeus. The publiows enough to know they’re the bad guys… which is just how the Powers That Be like it. Those at the top don’t want it known that a group of singurly powerful mutants almost mao make them bow their heads in submission, after all. Of course, the other reason it didn’t get more news ce is the same reason it didn’t work… the Brotherhood was stopped, not by the US Military, but by the X-Men.”
Now she sees Thaddeus starting to uand. Smiling wryly, Emma nods.
“Yes. ly a good look wheant terrorists are only stopped iracks because of the mutant do-gooders, now is it? Maybe if the Avengers had been the oo step in, but they were busy dealing with something else and by the time they were avaible, the situation had already resolved itself.”
Emma huffs and shakes her head, lifting up a hand to forestall Thaddeus’ expected protests.
“And no, before you ask, I don’t know much more beyond that the X-Men carried the day and the Brotherhood lost. More specifically, I know that when the dust settled, the biggest casualties were Mago… and Ms. Grey. Mago was arrested ao prison, as you likely already know… but the rumors say Jean lost trol of her powers on that mission and ultimately died for it.”
Frowning, Thaddeus crosses his arms over his chest.
“Except you’re saying that now she’s here at ESU, teag biology of all things.”
Humming, Emma shrugs.
“I wasn’t particurly close to her, but I’d seen her in passing once or twice, and I’ve also seen pictures of her. In fact…”
It takes her a moment to find a photo. The X-Men didly tend to have social media, nor did the Xavier Institute for that matter. By it’s very nature the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning was quite the private pce. Still, she doesn’t need social media, not when she has the es that she does. Eventually, Emma swings her puter monitor around to show Thaddeus.
“This is Jean Grey. You tell me if she’s familiar to you at all.”
Thaddeus’ eyes widen as he takes in the green-eyed red head’s smiling visage for a moment.
“… They’re the spitting image of one another, no doubt about it. But why would she be here now? What’s the point of it all?”
Emma shakes her head as she turns her puter monitor back around and sits ba her chair. That recisely what she’d been trying to figure out since seeing this ‘Madelyne Pryor’ in Thaddeus’ memories.
“I don’t know. I know that Grey left behind a lover though, one Scottie Summers. Supposedly, the two women were inseparable. I ’t imagine Xavier hiding her survival all this time only to deploy her like this and alongside Muo boot. Which means someone is pying games and ohe X-Men find out, they’re going to be all over this situation… as much as they be anyways.”
Thaddeus raises an eyebrow at that, causing Emma to smirk.
“The X-Men are on a short leash. By their very nature, they want to be seen as the ‘good guys’… and taking down Mago and his Brotherhood earhem some brownie points for sure. But that doesn’t mean they just do whatever they want… they do NOT have the authority to act as saned heroes like the Avengers do.”
Tilting her head to the side, the White Queen shrugs again.
“We could let Munroe know about Pryor and sit back. It would almost certainly take the heat off of us for at least a little while, with the X-Men fog all of their attention on figuring out the mystery behind Madelyne Pryor’s familiar visage and whoever is behind Pryor forced to tend with their… subtle iigations.”
She tell Thaddeus sees the merit in the idea, even as he nods thoughtfully.
“… Giving us room to iigate Shu Wong a bit more deeply… while also figuring out how to deal with She-Hulk.”
Emma raises an eyebrow at that, letting the ers of her mouth quirk up in amusement.
“Careful with your choice of words there, Thaddeus. How exactly shall we ‘deal with’ She-Hulk.”
Thaddeus flushes and Emma tell that at the end of the day, even he’s not sure whether that was a slip of the tongue or if he was trying to vince Emma that he was still on her side above all else. Here’s the thing, Emma didn’t think Thaddeus would betray her. At least not so long as the Bck Queen still loomed over their heads. But as, in giving him those Luck Powers courtesy of Domino, Emma had pyed a part in Thaddeus meeting some heroines. And not just any heroines, but the Invisible Woman and She-Hulk to boot.
While Thaddeus’ e with those two women was a little irritating, it could also be viewed as an opportunity as well. Emma would be a fool not to take the ce afforded to her by his retionship with a bonafide Avenger.
“… Obviously I don’t want us to have to hurt her or anything like that. But at the same time, we o be careful. She’s shown herself to be far more than just a bunuscles so far.”
Emma nods at Thaddeus’ diplomatiswer. He was right, to be fair. pared to the inal Hulk, She-Hulk was far tamer, probably part of the reason she worked so well as an Avenger in the first pce. From what Emma had heard, the inal Hulk was basically just a simple-minded rage monster, and a barely trolble o that.
Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk… got to keep her mind wheransformed. She kept her wits about her and led a mostly normal life outside of the ability to transform at the drop of a hat and her work for the Avengers. Of course, the trade off was that she wasn’t nearly as unstoppable as the Hulk was. She’d beeen before and if it came down to it, Emma was fident that Thaddeus could take She-Hulk on and e out on top.
That said, Thaddeus was right. her of them wa to e down to that. It would be much better for their pns if She-Hulk could be… co-opted into what they were doing. Emma was under no illusiohough. She-Hulk’s ultimate goal was likely the plete and total dissolution of the Hellfire Club if she could ma.
Theirs would be an alliance of veniend y, but by its very nature, both the veniend y of su arra would run out eventually… and then, if Emma and Thaddeus weren’t very careful, they would end up at cross purposes with the green-skinned Avenger. And if Emma wasn’t very, VERY careful… well, she might just lose Thaddeus’ loyalty somewhere along the way as well.
The game had ged with the events of Friday night. The stakes had never been higher. But Emma had to be ho, even she hadn’t expected everyoo move their pieces across the board THIS fast. They should have had more time… SHE should have had more time. Huffing, Emma looks to her newly anointed White Knight and smiles.
“Then we will have to tread very carefully indeed. Still, from the sound of things, blowing her off is the st thing we want to do. That said, we also o get the information about Madelyne Pryor to Ororo Munroe as fast as possible. Hm… we could split up. Cover mround faster. But what do you think? Do you think it better for me to meet with She-Hulk alone? Or would you prefer to be there, just in case?”
Emma watches Thaddeus’ rea to her query carefully. Would he insist on being present, or would he leave iations with their tentative heroically ined ally in her hands? Either answer would tell her quite a lot, truth be told…
-x-X-x- The Vote: [ ] Thaddeus wants to be there for the meeting with She-Hulk - 18%[X] Thaddeus agrees to dividing and quering. He'll go to Storm while Emma meets with She-Hulk - 82%
-x-X-x- ?A/N: Please chey daily updating project The Age of Chaos (inal Fantasy) if you have a moment! -x-X-x- If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry. and QuestionableQuesting. where I have over a thousand stories! If you'd like to tribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on Patreon./Cambrian
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