The Cale Storyline Story 8 Chapter 2

Attention: Generation X and their villains, as well as any other mutant mentioned in this story, is property of Marvel Comics. The character Richard Cale is named after family relations. Any other reference to anything copyrighted is a chance happening.

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Hunted

Chapter 2: Locked On (updated)

Sean waited as Rich got dressed. As he waited, he decided to ask the question that he didn’t want to ask. “Rich, were you two ever going to tell Emma and I about this arrangement?”

He heard the lad sigh. In that sigh, Sean could tell that there were tons of thoughts in the lad’s mind. “No, we didn’t think you would approve, sir.” Sean could tell my Rich’s formal tone meant that Rich wasn’t speaking ot him as a teacher and friend, but as the father figure.

Sean wanted to comfort the boy. “Lad, ye know that I trust ye judgement. I know that ye wouldn’t take advantage of Yvette.” It was the truth. “I just wish ye would tell us about what ye had up yur sleeves. Remember, we got a shock when we found out about ye journal.”

He heard another sigh escape the lad’s lips. “I wish I never started that journal at times. I once checked out a college up in this area just to prove that I was making the stuff up. Instead I got more questions.”

Sean looked at the lad and said, “How so?” Sean had to admit, he was a bit curious.

Rich looked at him and said, “A book was said to be owned at the college. That was my real reason. To prove it was a fake. I only found out that it was an altered duplicate. It made me wonder more. Who has the original, and what did they plan to do with it?”

Sean could see the frustration in the lad’s eyes. He then said, “Rich, lad, calm down. It’s nothing to worry about right now. Right now, we need to know what Emplate be up to.” He pointed to the communications device lying on Rich’s desk.

Rich looked at it and said, “Could mean anything. Right now, I have a feeling it was meant for Yvette, and that worries me.”

Sean started to get worried too. “Ye think he’s giving her a choice to return or else.” He watched as the boy nodded. “If ye think so, why is Emplate doing it this way?”

He noticed Rich shruged as he said, “Only one person can answer that, and that’s Emplate.” Sean had to agree with the lad, and he could tell that the whole idea of a message from Emplate was worrying the lad more than he let on.

Sean picked up the unit and said, “Then we’ll all take a look at it together. Then, if we have to suspect anything, we’ll all know what to expect from him.” He noticed that Rich seemed more comfortable with that. At that, the two of them left the room.

Monet realized that she was holding everyone up. While she was getting ready, her sister had decided to try and take charge. By the time she regained control, her sister had already dictated her wardrobe for the day. She had barely time to look more dignified when Emma let lose with a psyonic summons. She ran as fast as she could to the room, and when she entered, she definatly got attention she didn’t want. It was Jubilee who first remarked, “Monet, what happened to you? Decided to go slumming.”

Monet just glared at all who was laughing and said, “I think my sister was in a bit of kidding mood. She wasn’t much on dressing proper.” She couldn’t say her real reasons, that her twin sister sided with Emplate at any chance.

She noticed as Emma said, “I hope you plan to fix that after the meeting.” She nodded and Emma motioned her to sit down. When she finally sat down, Emma said, “Now, we seem to have been visited by D.O.A.” Monet knew that much. Then Emma said, “And it appears that he came not to attack, but deliver a message. So far the contents of the message are unknown.”

Right then, Monet heard her sister pipe up in her mind. "Marius must want Penny to come back to him, and bring Richard with her."

She almost yelled aloud to her sister when she noticed that Richard was going to press a button on the device. Instantly, an image formed into that of Emplate. It appeared to look straight at Yvette as it said, “Hello Yvette. I hope that you receive this message and hear it out, for it is in your best intrests. I don’t know if you remember or not, but a while ago, I came to your school with a bunch of my Hellions, amongst them was one Gayle Edgerton.” She noticed Jono appeared to take notice in the message. Soon, her brother’s image spoke again. “I still have a small grip on her, but now she has been shot. Luckily, she isn’t dead, but her attacker was Hunter.”

Monet heard a slight gasp and soft “Oh no.” She noticed that Yvette started to tense up. She watched as Rich held her, but she heard her mutter, “It’s coming true.” It appeared as if Rich wasn’t there at all.

The image then continued, “I see you remember him, as you most likely remember his threat. I know he’s going to visit you next. I figure that right about now you fear for your life, so I extend to you the offer of returning to me. He is not as confident yet to challenge me, but he will not attack you if you are with me, and also know that I am doing this out of kindness, for I offer the same protection to Richard. I will allow you full choice on what happens to him. I will give you one hour after you see this recording, upon which, Elane will come to hear your response. She has been ordered not to attack. In one hour..” and the image ended. Monet noticed that Yvette was more scared than ever.

She then noticed Yvette was crying. She was first to ask the one question that was on everyone’s mind, “Who is Hunter?”

She noticed as Yvette said between sobs, “He’s just what he calls himself. He’s a hunter. He hunts down Emplate’s enthralled, feasts on them, kills them. He used to be one like them, but he broke free. He doesn’t believe that if you break free, you’re free. He believes death is the only escape. He won’t be happy until he has killed all the Emplate’s and he includes me in that.” She started to cry again, and Monet watched as Rich held her.

Monet watched as Rich looked around an with a realization in his eyes. “She said she had a nightmare last night. This must have been it.”

In her mind, Monet heard Claudette say, "Aww, poor baby. Maybe I should tell our brother that she wants to come back." Again Monet wanted to snap back at Claudette, but she knew an outburst would cause too many questions.

Soon enough, she heard Jono ask, "I don’t like the sound of this. I mean, how does this guy even know where to look for you. And how did he know where to find Gayle?"

In between sobs, Monet listened as Yvette said, “He’s still linked to Emplate. He knows what Emplate knows. Emplate however vaguely know what he knows. Emplate won’t attack him, not unless he attacks him first.”

Monet noticed as Rich looked at Yvette intently and said, “Like some of the stories about Lycanthropes?” She noticed as Yvette nodded to what Rich said.

Sean then asked the question that she was pondering. “Lad, why did ye just liken Emplate to a Werewolf? He’s more like a vampire.”

Rich turned to look at them all and said, “In some stories, werewolves and such are pack creatures, with one Alpha wolf and the rest are Beta. An Alpha cannot attack a Beta, unless the Beta attacks it first. If an Alpha harms a Beta, it harms itself, and breaks the control link. However, a Beta can attack a Beta.” Monet noticed as Rich turned to face Yvette again and looked at her. “You had been a Beta Emplate.”

Yvette nodded, and Monet heard a gasp from everyone. “I had just been abducted from my home. He had killed my parents. I was taken to his hideaway, and he told me that if I didn’t want to be his meal, I had to submit to him. I had been strong willed, so it would take a while to make me fully into an Emplate. I was one of his Enthralled, but not completely Entralled. I was still linked to him, but he was determine to keep me, either as a food source, or a slave. I had become a reluctant enforcer. I had to protect him, and keep others inline. I had been attacked many times by some of the others, and this made Emplate want me more as a food source.”

Monet noticed that Jubilee asked the next question, “What happened that forced you into that?”

Yvette just said, “I caught Hunter trying to leave. I had been ordered to prevent that, but he left. I couldn’t bring myself to kill him. I was put in the restraints that day, and Emplate started to feast on me, everyday stripping away a little bit of my free will. Until Gateway appeared and rescued me, I was almost convinced my only purpose was to feed Emplate until he killed me, and that it was my punishment.” She started sobbing and collapsed into Rich’s arms.

Monet heard Claudette finally say, "It will be worse when you return to him. I’ll tell him to make it worse." Her sister was really starting to get bother some. She tried to mentally surpress her sister’s mind, but Claudette started to fight back.

As she mentally struggled to surpress Claudette, she heard Darrett say, “You mean you willing wanted to be an Emplate. I should have know.”

Sean then said, “I don’t think it’s so farfetched, lad. I think you did as an Emplate suggested just to save yur own life, and millions others.” She saw the dumb struck look on Darrett’s face.

“That was different. I didn’t have an option. I was caught by the most powerful Emplates.”

Rich looked at him this time, and Monet heard him exclaim. “Tell me, Darrett. If you had a chance to preserve your life, would you jump at it, especially if you were scared to death, scared to death of dying.” Monet saw Darrett clam up. The boy had been afraid of dying. He had seen his own mother die. This thought distracted her from Claudette’s assault for control. As Claudette pulled her in to their mind. She literally was fighting to stay in control of her mind, and now was losing.

Yvette just sat there, with everyone. She had buried her head in Rich’s chest as she cried. She knew Rich was holding her. He was worried about her, but she was more worried about everyone here. Hunter would see all who was with her as her victims, maybe slaves. He’d kill them all. She sobbed a bit more as she thought about what he might do to Rich. No, she couldn’t let any of that happen, not to her friends and family. She knew what she had to do. She had to turn herself over to Emplate. She looked up and saw a stern look in her lover’s eyes. Before she could say anything, he said, “I won’t let you do that Yvette.”

She gasp. Before she could ask her question on how he knew, she heard Mondo say, “Won’t let her do what?”

He looked at her and said, “I won’t let her turn herself over to Emplate. She was just thinking about it.” She heard everyone gasp, except for Monet. She noticed the Monet had a blank stare on her face, another Autistic episode.

She heard her adopted father say, “Yvette, he’s joking, right. Ye wouldn’t do that, would ye?”

She sighed and said, “I don’t want you all to get killed because of me.” It was true. She didn’t want them all to get killed because of her. “Hunter won’t think your free of Emplate’s power. He’ll kill you first. I don’t know how, but he will.”

Everett just looked at her and said, “Yvette, what’s his ability? If we know that, we can stop him. You don’t have to turn yourself over to Emplate.”

Yvette shook her head and said, “I don’t know. All the time I had encountered him, I never found out what his abilities. All I knew is that he lived up to the name Hunter.” It scared her to think about Hunter. In fact, until now, she never thought about the risk to her life. Rich arrived into her and she was happy since then. Now, it was going to end.

She saw Jubilee looking at the clock and said, “Well, we have about 30 minutes now until Aura arrives. We gotta make sure she doesn’t take Penny, and Rich, with her.”

Yvette looked in shock. Why were they doing this? She started to object when Rich said, “If Monet’s out of her trance, she can tell Aura off. The rest of us can come up with a game plan to stop this ‘Hunter’.”

Yvette looked at him and started to say, “But love, I don’t want to see you hurt. I...”

Rich put a finger up to her mouth and she stopped talking. He then said, “Not to long ago, I was in the same situation. I didn’t flee then. Are you going to now?”

She then realized what he meant. Back when Soundwave attacked, he was about to leave the school, but he didn’t. Now he wanted her to stay, because they would protect her, like they did with him. She slowly came to terms that what she was going to do would have been the biggest mistake in her life. She smiled at him and said, “Alright, I’ll stay.” She held him close to her and prayed that she wasn’t being foolish.

It had been almost 50 minutes after the message stopped. Soon Elane would be at the school. This unnerved Rich a lot. He honestly didn’t think that she would obey Emplate about not hurting them. Rich was still holding Yvette as she had been holding him. This ‘Hunter’ character might be more than they can handle, but they still had to try. The one person most important to him was in terrible danger. Soon, he noticed Monet was blinking her eyes. She was finally coming out of her episode. It was times like these that they didn’t need for this to happen. He finally said aloud, “She’s coming out of it.”

He heard Jubilee say, “It’s about time. She picks the worse times for these spells.” He had to admit that they sometimes appeared when they least needed them to appear.

He sat quietly with Yvette as Sean said, “Monet, we need ye to handle the talk with Aura. Be careful, cause she might have a few tricks up her sleeve.”

Rich nodded and said, “I don’t trust her, but I don’t want to give her the opportunity to hurt either Yvette or myself. She’s got a few loose screws, and out of all of us, you might be able to handle her best.”

He noticed something in the way Monet responded. “Don’t worry. If she tries anything, I won’t let her succeed.” It wasn’t her usual tone. It sounded different, but with a familiar type of tone to it. He watched as she left the room. He then noticed something at how she acted in her walk.

Before he could put his finger on it, he heard Sean say. “Alright Rich, Yvette, I want ye both to go down into the underground area, just in case anything may happen. Mondo, Daria, Everett and I will go with ye. I want ye to start thinking of possible plans of defense. Something that won’t cost us a life.” He nodded and started down the path to the underground portion of the school. The place where Emma had set up a mutant training facility many years before.

He still had Yvette by his side, when she said in their mental link "My love. Were you scanning my mind earlier?"

He knew what she was talking about, but his answer would surprise her. "No, my love, I wasn’t."

He glanced to see the look of shock on her face as she said, "How did you know then?"

He smiled and said "Billy Joel said it best. There are no words to say it. I could just tell. I wasn’t watching your thoughts. I wasn’t listening to them. I just knew. Love does that to you." He tightened his hand around her’s and smiled. "You don’t have to scan a mind to know what they are thinking."

She smiled and squeezed his hand in return. "I just didn’t want to see anyone get hurt, even if it meant me going back to Emplate. I wouldn’t want you to join me in that fate. I can’t let you join me in that."

He looked at her, puzzled by that. She knew he wouldn’t let her do that alone, even if she ran away to do so, she knew he would not let her do that alone. "Yvette, you know that if you went, I would go to protect you, as best I could."

He watched as she just said, "No. I can’t let you do that. I can’t say why right now, but I can’t let you do that."

This shocked him. He looked at her and said, "Are you hiding something from me?"

He didn’t have time for a responce as Sean said, “Alright, here we are, now let’s start planning.” He decided that he could wait to find out her reasons. Normally, Yvette never kept a secret from him, but now she was. It didn’t make sense, but there was no time to debate it now.

Elane Bonstein stood right inside the main hall of the school. She was getting impatient. She swore to obey her lovers orders not to hurt either Yvette or Rich, and she hated that idea. She hoped that they would show up, just so she could taunt them and maybe startle them. Besides, if she attacked them, and they attacked her, she could say it was self defense. Her thought was cut short when she heard someone say, “I have a message to give you.” She turned to see Emplate’s sister, Monet walking out of one of the doors. However, the attire looked nothing like how Emplate described as his sister’s style.

She looked at this definately different Monet and said, “Alright, where is Richard and Yvette?” She watched as the figure just moved closer and closer to her. The girl wasn’t scared of her, nor was she threatening her. However, there was a different aura about the girl.

Monet just responded, “They are staying, however, I’d like to make you an offer.”

Elane took a step back, mainly in shock. She shook her head and said, “What makes you think Emplate would accept an offer from you?” There was a blur of movement, and she was on her back.

The figure looked down at her and said, “Tell my brother, that we will manage to set up Hunter in a place where he can finish him off. If you need proof of this, tell him that Claudette said so.”

Elane blinked and then said, “Claudette, as in his favorite sibling.” The girl nodded and she started to understand. She ran out of the building, and hurried back to the lighthouse. She need to tell her lover this. It might be a good thing that she didn’t attack.

Darrett sat patiently as he waited. He was with the others as they waited for Monet to return. He had watched as the two members of Generation X that he knew in his timeline would be his parents left to protect Yvette. Deep down, he hoped that something would happen and the two would start to date. He felt threatened that they didn’t date. He felt that he wouldn’t exist, but he remembered from the time he spent with the X-Men, that Bishop was displaced out of time. It was as if the time changes didn’t affect him. Would that be the same for him? He was in the middle of this thought when Emma said to him, “Darrett, you don’t talk much about your timeline. Is there anything you can tell us?”

He looked at her, puzzled that she would ask such a question. He finally said, “I don’t think you would want to hear it.” It was true. He looked at each member, realizing that he could tell them, in some terms, how each died. It’s not a topic one would want to hear.

Emma looked straight at him and said, “Maybe, but I do wonder what happened in your timeline. All we know is that Richard and Yvette were Emplates in your timeline. One’s that did what many mutant villians dream of in our timeline.”

He then heard Jubilee say, “Yea. I mean, how could any of the X-Groups allow that to happen, and how come we couldn’t stop them.”

He didn’t want to tell them. He felt like he couldn’t, not knowing how everyone would react. He then heard Paige say, “I mean, if they went up against us, they couldn’t have defeated us.”

He sighed. They weren’t going to let him stay quiet. He then said, “I didn’t want to say anything, but you’ve made me. They were crafty. They singled every member out. Divided the group, or let it be divided. The first one fell after they became Emplates. Enraged at the situation, they killed all of Emplate’s followers, and they attacked the one they felt betrayed them.”

He heard Jono say "Who was that?" It was a valid question. He just wasn’t sure how to answer it.

He was thankful when he saw Monet enter the room. She always seem dignified, but today you would never have been able to tell that. However, he did find her outfit appealing. She just said, “Well, Elane has left, and she didn’t look to thrilled. I think she would have preferred hurting both Rich and Yvette.” From what he had seen from the museum, that was an understatement.

He watched as Emma stood as she said, “Alright, let’s all head down to where the others are. Monet, I would like you to get into something more appropriate.” He noticed as Monet seemed to frown. Maybe she was upset that she was getting blamed for what her sister made her wear. He followed the others as they headed in the direction of where the others went, but he noticed that Monet went off in the direction of the dorms. As he watched, he saw her turn and look at him. He was shocked as she winked at him. Did she like him? He continued down the hall, trying to sort it all out. What he knew about her here, and the very little he had been told by his mother.

Claudette reveled at the fact that she was in control of the joint body. After winking at Darrett, she listened in delight as she heard Monet scream "What are you doing? You made a deal a with Aura. What are you up to?"

Claudette continued walking to the room and said, “You know, that Darrett boy is quite handsome. I don’t think you’d mind if I spent some time with him.” She let a small smile cross her face.

Almost instantanoiusly, Monet shouted at her. "No, you don’t Claudette. I won’t let you do that. I know you only care about helping Marius." Her sister didn’t know her too well, even though they were twins.

“Are you kidding? Marius is just part of the equation. With his studies of the black arts, having him as part of us would make us that supreme magical entity again. If father and his two friends hadn’t split us up, we would have still been.” She laughed at the thought of the meaning of her success.

She then heard Monet say the one thing she knew might be a problem. "Marius would never let you try that again." She was right about that. Claudette had never worked that part out, but now all she had to do was help Marius. Maybe somehow, she could trick him again. Maybe her little plan would work in that way.

As they approached the room they occupied, she openned the door and said, “Alright now sis, what is it you like to wear. Something boring, right.” She felt her sister try to regain control of the joint body, and she surpressed her. “Now, now, Monet. I’m not through yet. You’ll just have to stay contained for just a while longer.” She laughed aloud as she put together a typical Monet outfit. So far, no one was the wiser to her little trick.

Jubilee listened to all the idea’s that everyone was pitching. They were trying to come up with the best idea on stopping this Hunter character. The thing that hurt most of their ideas was the fact that they didn’t know word one about Hunter. Not even Darrett, a boy from a world almost ruled by Emplates, had no clue about it. Finally, she heard Paige say, “Why don’t we have Ev and Rich try and use his abilities against him?”

Jubilee looked at Ev and then at Rich and said, “I think that might work.” She truely didn’t like the idea of Ev going to fight with someone dangerous, but his ability would allow them to find out a little about Hunter.

She then heard Rich say something that struck her. “Good plan, but how likely do you think I’m going to be to leave Yvette’s side right now?” He was right. Deep down, Jubilee knew that he wouldn’t leave Penny’s side. Rich would stay to defend her, if it even meant his death.

She then heard Everett said, “I think it’s a good plan. We can find out his abilities, and maybe some of the rest of us can hold him back.”

Rich then said, “Only if you don’t get close to him Ev. If I remember right, you, for a short time, were an Emplate. That puts you on Hunter’s hit list.” Jubilee felt her heart sink. Rich was right. That was right before Onslaught. Then Rich said, “And if I have a wild guess, Hunter might think Yvette might have seduced me. I don’t know, but it would be a good guess.”

She heard Sean sigh and say, “The lad’s right. He might try to kill all of us just for trying to protect Yvette, but I think that gives us all the more reason to stop him.”

Jubilee was about to say something when Monet came in and said, “Maybe we can stop his assult before he get’s too close, but I think the only way to find out his power is to make him think he’s got close.”

Jubilee almost started to fume at that. She had a feeling what Monet was suggesting. “Are you saying that we use Penny as bait? No way.” She heard everyone agreeing with her.

Jubilee was surprised when Monet just glared at her and said, “No, we project an image of her onto something. I doubt this Hunter has my brother’s gift of knowledge on sight. Maybe we can fool him just long enough to get an upper hand.”

Jubilee looked at Monet in shock, partially from the glare she had received. Something was definately different with Monet. This wasn’t the usual, I know what I have planned glare. This was a ‘Don’t mess with me’ glare. She had seen Wolvie use it a few times. This wasn’t the same Monet they dealt with daily. Something was very different. She then said, “Ok, that makes sense, but what do we do when we find out.”

Monet smiled and said, “We’ll have to plan on our feet then, but we can’t let this Hunter person get the upper hand. If he succeeds, we might lose two teammates, maybe more. He might just try to eliminate the whole school.”

Jubilee had to agree with that reasoning, but something really bothered her about Monet. It was the small things. Something one wouldn’t normally notice, unless a fake was standing there. She started wondering if it was Monet or Claudette in control. Then, she remembered that Monet said that Claudette was a symbiotic mutant. She needed Monet to survive. It couldn’t be that. She was musing on this when Emma said, “That sounds like the best idea we’ve had so far. We just have to set up a target to catch his attention. One I can mask in his mind.”

Sean then said, “Maybe we can use one of the practice droids. We might be able to even set it up to look like Yvette.” Jubilee then noticed that for the first time since they entered the room, her surrogate ‘sister’ had a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

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He walked through the streets of the small town, careful not to let anyone see his hands. Although he wore gloves, he always felt that people could still see his curse. He cursed the day he had met with Emplate. He cursed even accepting the offer of power. Although many searched for the same power that Emplate seeked, he was only concerned with stopping the mutant factor. The natural mutant vampire that Emplate was, and what Emplate had turned him into. Now he was looking for the reluctant enforcer. Something told him Yvette was in this small town. He came to a small cafe and entered it. He noticed that most of the people were focusing on a TV in the corner. He heard a waitress say, “Just sit down, and someone will be with you in a moment.”

He didn’t feel like sitting. He wanted to get his task done, so he could finally be at peace. He was focused on the thought when he heard a voice on the TV say, “For 15 nights, the eyes of America watched, as common everyday people tried to win the biggest prize in the history in television. Many tried, few failed, but more reached a higher goal.” A picture of a man with red beard appeared as the TV said, “You’ve just won $125,000” The man was in exstacy. If it where him, he would not be happy. Then the image changed back to the New York Skyline, “And then, came a lone boy from Pennsylvania. As the country watched, the most anticipated moment in Television history approached.”

The image changed, and he saw the image of a boy in his early 20’s on the screen. The boy just said, “B for my final answer.” He noticed that the boy seemed to look ill. He wondered if he, too, was a victim of Emplates.

He heard one of the boys in the place say, “Hey, Dorian, isn’t that that Richard Cale dude from the school?” This sounded interesting.

The other said, “Yea, I think he said that girl he’s dating was in the audience that night, you remember, the redhead closer to our age. Can’t believe the father allows it?” This caught his attention even more.

The TV then said, “at the final question, the magical moment turned to tragedy as Richard Cale fell ill right on stage.” He quickly glanced back at the TV and saw three people help get Richard out of the studio. He could tell just from a periferal glance who he was looking at. It was Yvette Gyorgi, the next name on his list.

He turned and said to the two boys talking, “Excuse me, you know that boy that was on there?”

The one looked at him, puzzled, and said, “Ran into him a few times at the comic shop. Helped me out when I couldn’t pay for mine. He’s a nice guy, if not a little weird. He reads some strange stuff.”

“And the girl, what’s her name?”

The other boy just responded, “I think she said it was Yvette Cassidy, but I’m not sure. She said her father was the head of the school.” He now had an idea of what was happening. She must have realized that the boy on the show was a mutant, and was hiding what she was from this boy, or maybe she had seduced him. If it was the later, the boy had to die, but that was secondary. He had to kill her, so he could bring himself closer to peace.

He looked again at the two boys and asked his last question of them. “Which direction is this school from here?” The one boy pointed in a direction. That was all he needed. He didn’t even wait for directions. He just ran out the door of the cafe and headed in the direction the boy pointed out. With luck, he would catch her by surprise. His own mutant gifts would be all he needed to stop her long enough to kill her.