Chapter 6
Tommy didn’t know that training with his mom would be so fun. Sure, it was a lot of sitting around and meditating, which he didn’t enjoy too much – he fidgeted through most of it and there wasn’t a single moment where his brain was thought-free but his mom said it was alright. But when he got to do actual things like accelerating plant growth or turning an apple back into a seed? That was fun. And the look on his mom’s face whenever he did something right was more than enough to make even the worst of days a lot better and brighter.
His all-time favorite thing to do at her apartment, however, was hold the crystals. His mom had dozens of rocks and minerals that shone and sparkled and attracted his gaze. He was particularly drawn to the chunk of orange calcite that was the size of his hand. When he first held it, he didn’t put it down until he had to leave. He cradled it in both hands and walked around the apartment with it, tuning his energy to that of the large mineral. His mom had wanted him to keep it but it didn’t feel right to take such a beautiful piece from her collection, so he left it.
Upon his return from that morning’s session with his mom, David ambushed him. He dragged Tommy up the stairs by his arm, his hands gently grasping Tommy’s bicep. Tommy appreciated the pliable grip but he was more so confused. Where was he taking them?
David slowed down near the living room. He led his boyfriend into the room and pushed him to sit on the couch.
“I know we haven’t gotten to go out much since you moved in,” David started.
Tommy shrugged. “Well yeah. We have work to do.”
“Yeah,” David agreed. “But I want to spend time with you. Since it’s our day off, I figured we could watch a movie together.”
The speedster grinned, touched by the sentiment. “Aww, of course we can! Anything but Titanic, though.”
“Anything but Titanic.”
The boys were halfway through their movie when David got a call. He didn’t want to pick it up, unwilling to interrupt his time with Tommy. He was prepared to let it go to voicemail but Tommy picked up the remote and paused the movie.
David sighed before answering. “Prodigy speaking,” he announced into the receiver.
“David!”
The man pulled his phone away from his ear to look at the caller ID. Dani Moonstar. He knew the voice sounded familiar.
He brought the phone back to his ear. “Hey, Dani. What’s up?”
“You wouldn’t happen to be out with your team right now, would you?”
“Uh, no, actually. It’s my day off,” he responded.
“Damn it. Listen, I hate to do this to you, especially when you’ve finally got a break but I need you to come to Milwaukee. And bring your team.”
“What? Dani, you have to tell me what’s going on. I can’t just pull the team away from the case their working if I don’t know the situation.”
David caught a glimpse of Tommy’s expression as he spoke. The speedster’s brow was furrowed and he was worrying his lower lip between his teeth.
“It’s Surge. I found her body on the shore. Someone tried to dispose of it.”
David’s eyes widened. “Noriko? What happened?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I need you and your team out here ASAP. Please. I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t important.”
“Okay. We’ll be there.” He hung up the phone and turned to his boyfriend.
Tommy still had his lip between his teeth but when he saw his boyfriend looking at him, he offered a small smile. “I guess this calls for a raincheck on movie night, huh?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Tommy protested, standing abruptly. “Let’s get going! I’ll call JP and the others.” He left, phone already in hand.
David’s thoughts went to Noriko.
How did she die? Who could’ve killed her? What motive would they have had? What did she get herself into?
The team met them on the shore of Lake Michigan. Dani had sent a location to Prodigy’s phone after their call and he forwarded it to Northstar with a time and no other context. He figured Speed’s call would be enough until they could meet in person.
Dani was waiting with them, along with the tarp-covered body of Noriko and two Milwaukee police officers. Prodigy was already crouching beside the body with his tablet out, analyzing what he could by himself. Speed was speaking with the police officers, trying to find out what they knew. It was a little difficult trying to convince them that he was part of a death investigations unit because of how young he looked, but he managed.
Northstar was the first to approach, the others trailing behind him.
“Who do we have?” he asked, hovering over Prodigy’s shoulder.
“Speed didn’t tell you?” the younger man asked.
“Non, he did not.”
Prodigy lifted the tarp away from Noriko’s face. “Noriko Ashida, a.k.a. Surge. She was on my team at the Academy.”
Northstar rested a hand on Prodigy’s shoulder. “Apologies, Prodigy. Losing a close friend can be hard.”
Prodigy didn’t really know what to say to that, so he just nodded. Eyeboy sat down next to him and pulled the tarp off completely to examine the waterlogged corpse. The skin on her fingers and toes was wrinkled and weathered and her eyes looked sunken. Her face held an unhealthy green pallor, but her arms and legs were red with rashes. Prodigy’s eyes were immediately drawn to her sternum. It was sunken and bruised like the ribs had been broken. One of her lungs must have been punctured because he noticed signs of internal bleeding. Little wriggling insects were eating at her mouth and eyes.
“Subacute dermatitis,” he announced, pointing to the angry rashes covering her body. “Maceration on the extremities. Adipocere formation. Mild maggot activity. She was in the water for a day, maybe two before she floated to the surface.”
Eyeboy tapped Prodigy on the arm. “There’s residual quartz and hematite.”
“Mining,” Prodigy mumbled. “There are a few mines around here. The only one that has both of those is the Milwaukee-Davis Mine.”
“Then that is where we start,” Northstar declared.
Speed ran over to them, leaving the officers to do their reports. “They’re releasing the body to us. We can take her back to Krakoa and get her resurrected.”
“We figured out where she might have been at the time of her death,” Prodigy mentioned. “We’ll go there after we give the body to the Five.”
The others agreed easily and they transported the body, covered by the tarp, back to the island.
Elixir was in the reception area when they arrived. He grimaced when he saw them with the tarp-covered body. He walked over and greeted Prodigy.
“What’ve we got today?” he asked.
“Missing mutant,” Prodigy explained. “Body disposed of in Lake Michigan.”
Elixir nodded, a frown still on his face. “Who was it?”
Prodigy looked away.
Elixir asked again. “Who was it?”
Prodigy sighed. “Noriko.”
Elixir stared at Prodigy’s face, waiting for him to say he was kidding. “What?”
“Noriko.”
Elixir looked down at his feet. “Shit,” he mumbled.
He called for the others, who all came at his request. They gathered in the reception, surrounding the tarp-covered body. Elixir demanded that they start working on the body as soon as Doctor Reyes gave them the go-ahead. The others agreed easily but asked what he would be doing, as he made it sound like he wasn’t going to join them in overseeing the resurrection process like normal. He gave them a very simple answer: he was going with X-Factor to investigate Noriko’s death.
“With all due respect, Elixir–”
Whatever Northstar was about to say was cut off as Elixir fixed a glare on him.
“I will be coming with you.” He left no room for a reply as he nudged his way into their group, standing between Speed and Prodigy. Turning to Prodigy, he said, “I’m calling Jay. He’ll want to know about this.”
“I can’t ask you to do this,” Prodigy said. “You and Jay don’t need to be anywhere near this.”
“David,” Elixir interrupted, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder, “we’re doing this. For Noriko.”
Prodigy sighed. “For Noriko.”
Elixir threw an arm around the other boy’s shoulders. He led Prodigy away from Arbor Magna, ahead of the others. The rest of the team followed behind the boys..
“Remember when you and Noriko snuck onto the school roof?”
David raised an eyebrow. “Um… yes? Why?”
“What were you guys even doing up there?” Jay asked.
David flushed red. “Oh, uh…”
“No way!” Josh exclaimed. “You two totally–!”
“Shut up!” David shoved his hand over Josh’s mouth.
The three ex-teammates laughed together.
Tommy was happy to see his boyfriend getting along with his old friends – he really was. But hearing them reminisce like that hurt. He knew that he and David were dating. But what if meeting Noriko again would bring up old feelings? What if David decided he didn’t love him anymore? Tommy didn’t think he could handle it. But he couldn’t just bring it up with David! It would make him seem needy and might push David away. Besides, they’d already had similar conversations that always ended with David telling him he’d never leave. But how true was that now?
“Oh, hey, we’re here!” Jay announced.
The others all came to a stop outside the road leading into a deep pit. David pulled out his tablet and gestured for the others to gather around him.
“Okay, I’m thinking we send Tommy in first to scope out, see if any of our perpetrators are still here.”
Josh raised his hand. “Not that I’m against sending Minimoff in first, but what if they’re after speedsters specifically? We don’t know what Noriko was doing before being killed. They could have lured her here because of her powers.”
David chuckled. “Good thing he can stop time.”
“What!?”
The others shushed the blonde.
David turned to his boyfriend, who was staring at the ground. “Tom? Will you do it?”
Tommy’s head whipped up. “Huh? Oh, yeah. I’ve got it. Be back in a jiff.”
He froze time, watching as his surroundings turned a violent shade of green. He shuffled down into the mine, scoping out the tunnels. He almost got lost but he found the right tunnels again quickly enough thanks to his super speed. There wasn’t a soul in sight, not even a worker. The darkness gave him the creeps but he muscled through it, wanting to be thorough so he wouldn’t put David in harm’s way.
He ran back and let the green fade back into the normal colors of the world.
“Back,” he announced boisterously.
Josh and Jay glanced at each other.
The redhead looked back first. “But… you never left.”
David shrugged. “Yeah, he did. The real question is: did he find anything?”
Tommy shook his head. He gestured to the abyss. “There’s nothing down there but cart rails.”
“Did you see anywhere that could be the crime scene?” David asked.
Tommy thought back, playing through his memory of each of the tunnels. At his vacant gaze, Jay asked if he was okay.
The others nodded, used to Tommy disappearing into his own head. Finally, Tommy was nodding.
“Yeah,” he said, “there was this spot on the ground, like a large pool of blood was absorbed by the dirt before they could clean it up.”
“Then that’s where we’ll start,” David declared. “Lead the way.”
Tommy led the group down into the tunnels, stopping time every so often to make sure he was going the right way. He could tell the others were tiring as they went deeper into the caves. He reassured them they were almost there. The young man eventually came to a stop in front of a large open space. The others sighed in relief before groaning as they took in the expanse.
“We have to look in here?” Josh asked incredulously.
David turned the flashlight of his tablet on. “Looks like it. Tommy? Do you remember where exactly you saw the blood?”
The time warper nodded, bouncing on his heels. He jogged into the dark open space and headed for one of the far walls. The others rushed to catch up with him. He traipsed along, scanning the far wall for the spot of discoloration he had seen. His eyes picked up on it about halfway down and he went straight for it.
“Here,” he called, pointing to the dark spot.
David knelt down and put his fingers on the discolored dirt. Trevor knelt with him. Josh and Jay crowded behind them and leaned over David’s shoulder.
“That’s it?” Josh asked.
David sat for a moment before nodding. “Most likely. It’s either hers or her killer’s.”
Jay made a doubtful sound. “If that was the killer’s, he probably wouldn’t have made it out of here.”
“Good point. Tommy?”
The time warper made a questioning humming sound.
“Did you see any evidence of another death?”
Tommy shook his head. “Nope. No body and no immediate signs of struggle. It kind of makes me wonder if she even put up a fight.”
Josh growled and pushed himself into Tommy’s personal space. “Of course she put up a fight!” he shouted. His voice echoed through the cavern. “It’s Noriko!”
“I don’t know her!” Tommy protested. “Just saying her name means nothing!”
Northstar shoved himself between the two young men. “Mon Dieu, will you two please quiet down.”
Tommy sighed but acquiesced and backed away. He crossed his arms, closing himself off from the others.
“All I meant,” he ground out, “is that she might have known her attacker.”
Josh looked like he wanted to argue again but David put up a hand to silence him.
“It’s a good thought,” David agreed. “Knowing Noriko, she would only let her guard down with someone she trusts or if she was alone. She could have been ambushed.” He turned to Northstar. “Do we know if she was with anyone?”
The older man shook his head. “Non. We have very little information on what exactly she was doing here.”
David turned the screen of his tablet on, the light illuminating his face in the dark cavern. He tapped the glass for a bit, sometimes sliding his finger across. The others sat in silence as he searched. After about a minute, he stopped.
“Has anyone talked to the X-Men recently?” he asked.
The others looked around at each other in confusion. Most of them shook their heads. Only Northstar and Josh raised their hands before Tommy made a sort of see-saw motion with his.
“I saw Rictor a few days ago, but he’s on the Excalibur team now so I don’t think he counts,” Tommy explained.
Josh shrugged. “Saw Gambit and Rogue when you guys brought them in, but other than that, no. And they aren’t exactly X-Men either, from what I’ve heard.”
Northstar nodded. “They both stepped down from the team.”
“Well, who did you see?” Trevor asked curiously.
“Iceman. He came in yesterday asking if we had received any calls about missing mutants,” Northstar explained.
David hummed, pressing a curled forefinger to his chin. “Maybe he knows, then.”
“Knows what?” Tommy leaned over to look at the tablet screen.
The taller man pushed the tablet to his side so the time warper could get a better view. “What mission the X-Men had Noriko working on.”
Tommy stared up at the towering spires in awe. He knew the others weren’t as impressed with the building, but he had never been to the X-Men headquarters before and figured he was allowed to bask for a little while. Apparently, his grandfather made it back when he was still a villain – not that he isn’t one now, necessarily. It had been destroyed and rebuilt as the new X-Men headquarters. He felt like he was looking at a piece of history. His family’s history. He might have been nerd-ing out a bit, which wasn’t really like him. Well, it was, but only David, Billy, and Kate actually knew that. He looked ahead of him to see the group a few yards ahead. David was looking back at him with a knowing, wistful smile. Tommy grinned back at him. It was the first time since they had started the investigation that Tommy had smiled so brightly.
“It’s not that exciting,” someone muttered – probably Josh.
Tommy elected to ignore them, instead staring back at the large building in front of them. He wandered at a slow pace, much slower than he was usually comfortable with. David slowed down to meet him, though it took Tommy a second to notice. He slid his hand into Tommy’s, intertwining their fingers loosely.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” David asked.
The speedster nodded excitedly. He usually wasn’t that into architecture, but he could appreciate a good building.
The group marched inside, searching for the first X-Man they could find. They found a few assistants and some younger members of the Young X-Men wandering around, but no true X-Men. Then, they found Cyclops speaking with Synch in one of the corridors.
“Scott,” Jean-Paul called, drawing Cyclops’ attention.
“Northstar! What is all this about?” he asked, looking over the group of investigators and their tag-alongs.
“We need to ask you about one of the mutants found deceased recently.”
Cyclops glanced at Synch, who shrugged and walked off, allowing him to deal with X-Factor himself.
“Okay, who was it?”
“Noriko Ashida, a.k.a. Surge,” David explained, pulling up her file on his tablet. “We believe your team was the last to see her alive.”
Cyclops sighed, eyes downcast. “Yes. We did.”
“Was she doing something for you?” David asked.
Cyclops nodded. “Yeah. She was tailing a scientist who was experimenting with the X-gene. We needed to know exactly what he was experimenting on. She was supposed to report back to us a few days ago.”
“You didn’t think to report her missing?” Josh asked angrily.
Cyclops shrugged. “We assumed she was not in a safe place to report back. We didn’t know she had been murdered.”
Tommy felt vibrations crawl across his wrist. Looking down, he saw an incoming message from Dr. Reyes. He had forgotten that the team set up a direct link to her through his watch for ease of communication. Honestly, he didn’t think she would ever use it, not trusting him to report to Northstar and the others. He wouldn’t have blamed her.
He read the message. “Um,” he stuttered, drawing the others’ attention. “Dr. Reyes said that Noriko’s resurrection is almost complete.”
“We can go back and ask Noriko who exactly killed her,” Jean-Paul commented. To Cyclops, he said, “We’ll let you know so you all can look out for them in the future.”
“Please do,” Cyclops replied. “Now, I have some work to do. I assume you can see yourselves out.”
As the group left, Tommy felt the pit in his stomach grow. He didn’t know if he could meet this woman – his boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. What if David decided he still liked her? What if he liked her more than he did Tommy? What if she hated him like the rest of David’s friends and he decided that their opinion of his relationship was important enough to break up with him over? What if? What if? What if?
David paced outside the doors to the cavern of resurrection cocoons. The team was waiting on Charles and only Josh was allowed in during the resurrection process. David was nervous – of course he was, this was his friend. Tommy was nervous for a completely different reason. He was still so hung up on the what ifs. But he needed to be there for David. He wandered over to where David was and grabbed his hand. David’s head whipped up to look at him.
“Hey,” Tommy said, smiling softly.
David exhaled heavily. “Hey.”
“It’s gonna be okay.”
“What if she doesn’t remember who killed her?” David asked.
Tommy shrugged. “Then she doesn’t. And that’s okay. The X-Men know what group that scientist was working with so they know the general people to avoid during their missions.”
David nodded jerkily.
“Feeling better?”
David nodded again, a bit smoother this time. “Yeah.” He smiled at Tommy. “Thanks.”
Tommy grinned. It didn’t quite reach his eyes. “No problem, babe.”
The doors opened. Josh poked his head out.
“Is Professor X here yet?”
“Here.”
Jean-Paul walked down the corridor with Charles Xavier following with Cerebro tucked under his arm.
“Is Surge’s new body ready?”
Josh nodded. “Yeah. She’s about to wake up, actually.”
The group filed into the cavern behind Josh and Professor X. Tommy stayed at the rear of the group with his aunt, nerves reaching an all time high. Lorna leaned over to whisper to him, gently grabbing his arm to slow him down and match her pace.
“You doing okay?” she asked.
Tommy nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
She wasn’t convinced but didn’t push, knowing that doing so may push Tommy further away. She sighed but stuck by his side, providing a solid, grounding presence that he appreciated.
The team gathered around one of the pods, waiting for it to crack. Thin lines decorated the outside that the shell of an egg ready to hatch. The lines thickened and the sides split, spewing neon orange fluid and the nude body of a blue-haired woman onto the ground. She sat up, holding her head and groaning. She looked around, confused. Professor X pressed Cerebro to her forehead and her eyes widened as her memories flooded back to her. Tommy understood the uncomfortable sensation all too well.
Noriko looked up at the group surrounding her. She smiled when she saw her old friends.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“Hey yourself,” Jay said with a grin.
Josh frowned. “Maybe you should save the pleasantries for when you aren’t naked.”
“Right.”
Josh led her away to shower and dress, a towel draped around her to keep her modest. When she passed Tommy, the two made eye contact. Tommy’s eyes widened when she smiled at him.
The team was ushered out to wait for Noriko in the atrium. Tommy hung back at the sides, allowing the others to wait anxiously for her to reappear. David was back to pacing, though for an entirely different reason than before.
The blue-haired woman reappeared after ten long minutes. David and Jay went to join Josh at her side. Jay embraced her right away but David hesitated. Noriko looked at him and unwound herself from Jay and Josh. She smirked.
“Hey David,” she greeted. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed, knocking the air out of him.
“H-hey Nori.”
She let him go and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Damn. It’s good to see you again.”
“You too.”
Noriko glanced at the team behind him. “I suppose you’ll want to know who killed me. Unfortunately, I don’t know.” Her eyes skimmed over the group before landing on Tommy. Her face lit up, a spark of electricity crackling over her shoulder. “You!” She blasted toward him, skidding to a stop when they were almost nose-to-nose.
Tommy flinched back. “Um…”
“David’s told me a lot about you! Is it true that you’re as fast as Quicksilver?”
“Oh, uh… Maybe? It’s hard to gague. But I’m at least Mach 2 by now. I think Quicksilver is Mach 12 though.”
“Huh?” She cocked her head to the side and planted her hands on her hips. “Then how do you keep up with him?”
“I’m sorry, how do you know this?” he asked in suspicion.
She chuckled. “Like I said, I’ve heard a lot about you from this idiot.” She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder to point at David. “He wouldn’t shut up about you when you first started going out.”
“Still doesn’t,” Jay piped up with a grin.
David’s sepia skin flushed a dark cherry. “I don’t talk about him that much.”
Noriko looked at him and chuckled. “You so do!” She whipped back around to face Tommy. “I can see why, though.”
Tommy felt his own face heat up and he looked away. His eyes caught David’s and they smiled at each other.
Later that night, Tommy and David laid in bed cuddled up to each others’ sides.
They had spent some time with David’s old friends, just getting to know each other. Tommy found himself enjoying Noriko’s presence. He never should have been nervous when it came to her. She was kind and incredibly entertaining to talk to. They had a lot in common and Tommy knew that David was not nearly as prepared for them to meet as he believed he was. The moment Tommy asked Noriko to electrocute him, David dragged him away to speak to a much calmer presence: Jay. Tommy didn’t really know what to make of Jay other than he was talented with a guitar – that he pulled out of nowhere like some musician guy at a college frat party, Tommy didn’t know that the Boneyard even had a guitar in it – and was quite the chaotic bastard when he wanted to be. Josh was the most hotheaded of the group, but that was no surprise. He still didn’t get along with Tommy, but it didn’t bother him as much as before.
Tommy looked up at David’s chin, straining to keep his head tucked against the other man’s chest.
“Your friends are certainly interesting.”
David barked out a laugh. “I’m glad you see them that way.”
“I can’t say I enjoy the hostility from Josh, but the other two were fun to be around. Is Sofia like that, too?”
“She’s a bit like Jay,” David explained. “A creative spirit. But she’s also easily excitable, pretty friendly. I think you would like her.”
Tommy hummed, pressing his face further against David’s chest. “I think so, too.”
“The Hellfire Gala’s coming up soon,” David pointed out. “You can meet her then.”
“You still haven’t asked.”
David tilted his head down to look at the top of Tommy’s head. “What?”
“You haven’t asked me to go with you.”
David grinned. “Thomas Shepherd, will you–”
“Maximoff.”
“Huh?”
“I think I’m gonna add Maximoff to my name. Mom was thinking about officially taking custody.”
David’s grin widened. “That’s amazing, Tom. Now shut up and let me ask you out.”
“Okay, okay!”
“Thomas Shepherd Maximoff, will you go to the Hellfire Gala with me?”
“I would love to.”
Tommy went to bed that night ignoring the anxiety in his stomach in favor of savoring the warmth surrounding him. He was finally starting to settle in, finally starting to become comfortable with his place on the team and with David. Maybe he could belong. Finally, he could start to believe it.