Chapter 2
In a region of Krakoa, barely ten minutes away from the Boneyard, Madrox and his clones were pacing and shaking anxiously. Madrox had his hands buried in his short hair as he marched back and forth. The thick forest surrounding him was ominous, the canopy casting dark shade over the area. He and his clones were studiously avoiding a wet patch in the dirt, the spill site glowing an irradiated green in the shadows.
“This is bad,” he whispered to himself. “This is really, really bad!” He turned to one of the most panicked clones, the same one that caused the spill in the first place. “What did you do!?” he asked the clone.
The clone shrugged, his eyes wide and his form shaking and sputtering from the strain Madrox underwent with the number of clones he’d created. This one was especially unstable, one of the newer clones, yet it was given the important task of transporting a new chemical created by X-Corp for disposal. Unfortunately, The clone was too unstable, more than any of the others, and dropped the volatile chemical onto the permeable soil near the Boneyard property.
“It’ll be fine,” Madrox muttered. “We can just cover it up!” His eyes were drawn back to the spill. “Oh, who am I kidding? I’ve got to tell Angel. Hopefully, nothing was affected by this.”
Oh, how wrong he was.
The first week with X-Factor had been one of the best weeks of Tommy’s life. Northstar and the others had been incredibly welcoming. They got him on the chore rotation. They gave him his own profile on the Netflix account. They even stocked the kitchen with some of his favorite foods.
The one place in the Boneyard that Tommy had never gotten the chance to explore was the hanging gardens. He never had a reason to, his free time split between unpacking and helping the others with chores. Besides, there wasn’t really a reason for him to go there, so he had no complaints.
But tonight he was awake. Too awake. His thoughts were loud and racing and he could have sworn that Billy was sitting in the corner of the room, reading a book silently. He knew what it was and wanted to completely ignore it so he went for a run.
He slipped out of bed, smiling softly as he observed David’s relaxed features – the other boy had fallen asleep hours ago. He shoved his bright green trainers on his feet, seeing no reason to change first. He looked at the time on his phone as he put his earbuds in.
3:27 A.M.
Well, three hours of sleep wouldn’t be so bad. He took off at a leisurely jog, wanting to savor the inevitable feeling of his thighs burning and his heart pounding. It would take a while, but he would achieve the gratifying aches tonight if it killed him.
Okay, so maybe it might have the potential to kill him.
He had made it to the entrance of the hanging gardens, eager to see what the supposedly lush atmosphere had to offer. He was already starting to feel the satisfying burn in his chest, right where his lungs should be when he set foot into the garden.
It was amazing. The gardens were tiered with more kinds of flowers than Tommy had ever seen before. Massive trees erupted from the ground, giving him some obstacles for his run. He dodged and ducked and weaved around thick trunks and stray whip-like branches. A satisfied grin took its place on his lower face as he gazed around the place in awe. He was in a gorgeous garden with burning calves and aching arms and he couldn’t be happier. His previous nighttime runs had never been so pleasing. He could probably stay there forev–
“What the fuck?”
Tommy stopped, stumbling to a halt in surprise at what he saw. He almost couldn’t believe it, staring for a good many seconds trying to process the image. There, right in the middle of the garden, were large oak trees with billowing canopies and cradle-like trunks. It was an odd shape for a tree to have until you account for the decaying body trapped halfway inside the natural wood.
He didn’t know what to do besides scream in shock and perhaps a bit of fear. So he did. He let out a short piercing shout at the sight, stumbling backward into the safety of the canopy.
He slumped against the trunk of an oak he had deemed safe after careful inspection, eyes never straying from the decaying form of a long-dead mutant. His chest heaved as he took in the view longer. With the dark hair and tanned skin, the rotten corpse looked a little bit like Rictor. Actually, it looked a lot like Rictor.
He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there, back pressed against the rough bark of the tree with his chest heaving and his gaze unseeing even as he stared at the expired body, but it was long enough that people had come looking for him. Probably because they had heard him shouting in terror.
A pair of strong dark arms wrapped around him, compressing him inward but not in a suffocating way. David. A pair of legs in baggy teal sweats entered his view. Trevor. A large hand rested gently on his head, its weight a calming presence. Daken. A voice talking to someone, the thick lilting accent speaking rapidly in a different language. Jean-Paul.
Wait. Move? He didn’t want to move. He tried to tell them as much but all that would come out of his mouth were sharp gasps of air. He couldn’t speak and the thought terrified him. His breaths became rapid and his stomach churned as though his stomach acid was curdling. His throat closed and his eyes burned and the once calming pressure around him felt like it was too close and too much and everything around him was closing in.
He woke up in his bed but David wasn’t at his side. His eyelids felt heavy and his lashline felt as though it had been glued closed. When he tried to open his eyes, he found himself blinded by sunlight streaming in from an open window. His arms and legs were like lead and the weighted blanket on top of him was not helping that matter.
He heard footsteps approaching and turned his head to see who it was, tensing any muscle in his tired body that would still listen to him. His green eyes met the light brown of David’s. Every muscle in his body relaxed and suddenly all he felt was exhaustion.
“Hey, babe,” David greeted. His voice was low, as though he were talking to a startled animal. And after last night, that was probably a valid concern.
“Hi,” Tommy mumbled. His voice was thick and crackly, breaking at the end. He grimaced at the sore sound and realized that it was probably because of the screaming. “What… What happened?”
It was David’s turn to grimace, turning his sheepish gaze to the floor. His hand went up to the back of his head as he spoke. “Um… You kind of found the body farm.”
Tommy didn’t really know how to process that. He stayed silent for a while, just trying to formulate a response. “What?” was all he could come up with.
“Yeah.” David helped Tommy sit up, pulling the weighted blanket away and brushing it to the end of the bed. “We were planning on telling you sometime during a day off but… well, you found it yourself.”
Tommy’s eyes were wide with brows furrowed in confusion. “Okay, still stuck on the whole ‘body farm’ thing.” He threw his legs over the side of the bed with some difficulty.
David laughed quietly as he put his hands out so Tommy could pull himself u with them. “I promise I’ll explain after we show everyone that you’re alright.”
“Okay,” Tommy agreed.
Apparently, everyone had seen him last night. They took the time to describe exactly how they’d found him – glassy-eyed and shivering and shaking in the middle of a panic attack with his arms wrapped around himself in a self-soothing hug. Daken had heard his surprised scream and went to grab David first before collecting everybody else. They all had tried to get him back to his room so he could calm down in a familiar environment but he’d fought back. It had taken David hitting a series of pressure points to knock him out.
“So what happened, anyway?” Trevor asked. “You aren’t normally freaked by dead guys.”
Tommy snorted at Trevor’s phrasing. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe it was just shock?” he tried. “After all, it’s not every day you see a fucking body farm.”
Daken narrowed his eyes, nostrils twitching. “And you’re sure it’s not anything else?”
Tommy knew that Daken wouldn’t push if he said ‘yes.’ Daken knew his boundaries and refused to cross them. But Tommy knew it was something he had to answer honestly if he was going to get over it.
“It was… It was Rictor,” Tommy explained. By the confused looks of his teammates, he knew he hadn’t explained well. “I’ve known him for a while. Like… I think almost six years now. It was just… surprising to see his dead body just there.” He sighed, staring at his hands.
A large, dark hand was placed on his shoulder. The white-haired speedster turned his head to see Kyle smiling kindly down at him, understanding in his eyes.
“You know, one of the bodies in that farm is Jean-Paul’s,” the older man stated.
Tommy’s eyes widened in surprise before they filled with understanding. The man was comforting him by empathizing with him. Honestly, the speedster appreciated it. He was about to say as much when red lights started flashing and the alarm system went off.
“What’s happening?” he asked, shouting to be heard over the shriek of the sirens as his hands came up to cover his ears. He saw Daken do the same.
“There’s a breach somewhere,” David explained, also shouting.
“Oh, so not good,” Tommy said jokingly. “Do we know where?”
David shook his head and was about to respond until Daken interrupted. “The gardens!” he called.
Everybody took off in that direction, Northstar and Aurora using their super speed to do so. Tommy figured he might as well and went full speed, racing everyone to the gardens and arriving at the same time as the twins.
“Man,” he said, spooking the both of them, “you guys didn’t have to slow down just for me.” He grinned charmingly before turning his head every which way to see where exactly the breach was. He was so distracted with the task that he didn’t notice the twins exchange a confused yet concerned glance.
It was another minute before the others arrived, all of them having to use the stairs without super speed. In that time, Tommy had already canvased the perimeter and most of the grove. Everything was empty. That left only one place where the breach could be – the body farm. The same place that Tommy honestly never wanted to see again. He loved his boyfriend, he really did, but that thing was super fucking creepy.
“So? Where is it?” Prestige asked. Her arms were crossed and her foot tapped impatiently.
Eyeboy stiffened. “No… No way.”
“What?” Northstar inquired, a brow raised.
“It’s the body farm. The bodies… they’re alive,” he explained.
Tommy didn’t really know what to expect when going against zombies but they were surprisingly similar to Skrulls. They were oddly resilient, withstanding blow after blow from the team. The only ones who were able to take them out in one or two hits were Daken with his claws and Polaris with her metal manipulation. They slashed and stabbed their way through the crowd of zombified mutant corpses. Tommy was trying to punch his way through them like Northstar was attempting but neither of them was making much of a dent. Each zombie took at least five hits to take down. At this rate, they’d be stuck fighting zombies for hours and Tommy was not about to waste his day fighting nonsense zombies.
He growled angrily, glaring at a zombie that refused to go down. He was running on rage and spite, fatigue replaced by adrenaline, as he pointed a finger at the shambling corpse. There was a deafening sound of an explosion going off and then the zombie was no more, reduced to a pile of flesh and bones as dismembered pieces flew off in different directions from the impact.
Everything was silent save for the muffled grunts and groans of the zombies. Tommy completely ignored the others, who had stopped to stare at him in what he assumed was fear and perhaps caution as though he were suddenly a wild animal. Oh well. He’d had a good run on the team. Might as well go out with a bang.
He took out zombie after zombie, using his pointer finger to direct his vibrations at the atoms floating around in space. There was a head here, an arm there, body parts flying through the air as the explosions launched the corpses – or what remained – several feet back. He heard the twang of iron being crumpled up and formed into new deadly shapes, indicating that Polaris had joined the fight again. There was the sound of claws escaping a sheath of flesh and bone. Daken had finally rejoined the fight, joining Polaris in tearing whatever zombies that didn’t face Tommy’s wrath to shreds.
The hoard of undead corpses was dealt with swiftly and in the span of a few minutes, they were all but eradicated. Tommy’s chest heaved, trying to capture oxygen in his burning lungs. He could hear panting close by, the exhausted breaths a roar in his ears. He had gotten lost in the fight, his mind focusing on one thing only so he had no time to contemplate the others’ thoughts of him. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, every self-deprecating thought flooded his brain.
They were going to get rid of him. Why wouldn’t they? He kept this power from them and now they probably think he’s too dangerous to have around. And what about David? What would happen with David if X-Factor decided to let him go?
“Hey kid!” Daken called, startling Tommy out of his dreadful thoughts. When the white-haired speedster turned to acknowledge the wolverine, he was surprised to see a manic grin on the larger man’s face. “That was fucking awesome!” he shouted.
Trevor was nodding along. “Dude, it was super cool!” The blonde looked at David, who was staring at Tommy with a look he wasn’t able to place yet. “Did you know he could do that?”
“I know everything, Trevor,” David stated, eyes staying on Tommy.
Northstar was looking at him with an unreadable expression, though there was a glint of fascination in his eyes. “Is there anything else we need to know about your powers, Thomas?”
Tommy tried to think back to every time he used his powers, eyes and head rolling back to look at the ceiling as he scanned his thoughts. He hummed before shaking his head. “I don’t think so. Super speed, explosions, sense of humor. That’s it!”
“I see,” Northstar said. Although, the silent exchange between him and Aurora told a different story.
Tommy was sitting on the couch waiting for David to finish his chemical analysis of the soil samples they’d collected after the whole zombie fiasco. Well, sitting wasn’t really the right word. His back rested on the seat cushions as his head lolled off the edge, turning the world upside down, with his legs slung over the back. To anyone else, it probably would have been uncomfortable. To Tommy? Well, he had to admit it probably wasn’t the best position to be in but he was already there so he wasn’t moving.
Jean-Paul marched in, clearly looking for something. Apparently, Tommy was that something, given that the Quebecois man strutted towards him with purpose. Tommy let his legs fall to the side, twisting his body sideways until he was kneeling on the pristine white cushions.
“Thomas,” the man started, “would you mind running a few – how do you say – ah, experiments with us?”
Tommy shrugged, though the word “experiment” made him feel a bit uneasy. “I guess. What for?”
“We wanted to see what your top speed is now that you have trained your powers,” the man explained.
The younger speedster tensed, his breathing becoming more rapid. “Um…” In his mind, images of scientists in their cotton lab coats and polycarbonate goggles raced through his mind, each of them sneering or scowling in disappointment.
“You do not have to,” Jean-Paul added, holding his hands up in a surrender position.
Tommy nodded, though to what, even he didn’t know. Was he agreeing to participate? Was he saying yes, he understood?
He purposefully took deep breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth. He counted each second that passed, going maybe two minutes through the cycle over and over again until finally his chest stopped heaving and his heart beat normally.
The white-haired man swallowed thickly before nodding, meeting Jean-Paul’s eyes. “Okay. I’ll do it.”
“Are you certain?” The man didn’t want Tommy to put himself into any psychological danger if he didn’t have to.
“Yes.” Tommy made sure to sound as sincere as possible. After all, he really did want to see if he had improved.
Northstar didn’t look fully convinced but didn’t question further, merely leading the way down to one of the labs in the Boneyard. Tommy shakily exhaled, shutting his eyes tightly in an attempt to calm himself down. Hopefully, this would end well.