Working Undercover For The Man

[Tess Abrahams]

"It's not better, it's just more informed. Alex, I've been where you are and I didn't listen when people tried to tell me that it was a shaky spot to stand on," the reluctance in Tess's voice was palpable, twisting the words into tense versions of themselves as a muscle in her jaw quivered. "The cost of ignoring them was more than I ever could have anticipated - my best friend almost died because of it, for one thing."

On the couch, where she'd remained largely silent as the back and forth unfolded, Jennifer's eyes widened slightly. "What do you mean?"

It was a subject she'd never counted on discussing but there didn't seem to be much of a choice. They could toss counterarguments and quotations at one another all day long but the fact remained that she had seen firsthand just how brutal Saladin's regime could be. Tess tilted her head back and sighed to the ceiling, sending curls of shame into the air.

"Senior year. I left Cullen's because I met Hektor Vespasian - sorry, Saladin," her eyes found Alex's and she offered a tight, humorless smile. "He was charming and well-spoken and completely convinced me of what he stood for."

[Alex Kaine]

Alex went from disbelieving suspicion to disbelieving awe in no time flat. "You met Saladin?" he gushed. "Man, Anna told me he was here in May, I kicked myself for taking extra hours at the Shack. That must've been awes--"

The tightness of Tess's expression suddenly registered with Alex's brain, and he remembered the context of the argument. "Okay," he said, pulling back on the reins, "what happened?"

[Tess Abrahams]

'What happened' was far too simple a concept to contain the impressive downward spiral of events that had transpired. And yet, despite the complicated elements, the one image that would never fade was that of Jacinda Blake's face in the moment that she realized one of the people she trusted most, was one of the least deserving.

It was this memory that she thought of now, the disbelief in honest blue eyes that felt like a slap. God, Jacinda.

"I signed on the dotted line, is what happened," Tess wrapped her arms around her stomach, hip coming to rest against the plush side of the recliner. "And was stupid enough to think that I was helping the cause - you know, building a better world for all mutantkind? Don't get me wrong; it wasn't all bad. Some of it was pretty fantastic: the comradeship; the energy; the... ideas. But the thing about The Brotherhood is it's all about being useful.

"I was useful in providing them with a steady stream of inside information about Cullen's. And I was useful in a few offensive counterstrike operations against various "enemies" of the mutant utopia. And I was really useful in helping abduct that best friend to manipulate as a means to Saladin's ends. That was a particularly special moment."

Tess flashed a double-thumbs up, expression unwavering. "Miami. You remember the Miami incident, don't you?"

[Alex Kaine]

Alex was beginning to lose track of the bombshells Tess was dropping - not only a card-carrying member of the Brotherhood of Mutants but an active participant in their special operations and - if he was understanding this right - a member of Saladin's inner circle. He almost forgot this story was supposed to have a sad ending.

Jen had been swept away by now, too, though she was closer to white-knuckled fear than giddy excitement. "You mean that hurricane, the one created by a mutant girl?"

It had been all over the news - a monstrous storm cell that had formed spontaneously over Miami Beach with winds and a storm surge comparable to a Category Three hurricane. At the center of it all had been one teenaged girl with wind powers gone catastrophically out of control. The details had been sketchy - reports of other mutants getting involved, arrests and inquiries, a lot of talk of expert consultants and treatment at a secure facility. It had been like something out of a bizarre Tom Clancy-Stephen King collaboration.

"Yeah, I remember that," Alex said, a little numb. "(r)Evolution said it was some kind of demonstration that went wrong."

[Tess Abrahams]

A sharp laugh cut through the room. It wasn't funny - far from it - but Tess didn't know how else to react to the sheer absurdity of that statement and so she went with it, lips spread thinly across her teeth in an awful combination of grin and snarl.

"Is that what (r)Evolution said? Bang-up publication, that is," Tess wiped invisible tears of mirth from her eyes. "Tell me, Alex, did they print the part about how that girl, whose world was falling apart around her, by the way, was supercharged by a genetic device so dangerous that you'd be lucky if it rendered you a drooling vegetable afterward? Or that she was then sedated and planted specifically on that coastline by Saladin and his lackeys because they knew exactly the kind of damage it would cause? Surely they didn't leave out the part about it being an orchestrated disaster, meant to usher in the final separation between mutants and humans?"

A heavy silence filled the room. Jen's lap was filled with colorful specks of confetti, remnants leftover from the origami massacre her nervous fingers had performed during the retelling. Even Jim was hovering at a steady hum - not slow, certainly, but holding.

"Whatever you think you know? You don't," Tess shook her head. "But you're right - it's just a T-shirt. Word to the wise, though: don't put it in the laundry when I'm doing a shift."

[Alex Kaine]

Sometimes, when you buy a new shirt and it hasn't been broken in yet, the stitching around the hems at the neck and sleeves feel stiff and itchy and hot. Alex hadn't noticed it before, but he was feeling it profoundly now. He wanted to argue - he liked to think he was still pretty good at that - but there were some things even he knew you just couldn't argue.

"Okay..." He clapped his hands together and rubbed them awkwardly, just because they had to be in motion when he was nervous. "Okay, I can, uh... I can respect that."

Dang it, he could even feel the heat of Jennifer's and Jim's collective stares on the back of his neck, unless that was just a prickle of sweat. Alex started to turn, thinking he might just throw something over the T-shirt for Tess's sake, but he aborted and found himself facing her again.

"That aside, what do you think about his idea of independent mutant governance?"

[Jim Lewinski]

From the sofa there came a loud squeak. Jennifer turned around to find Jim rocking in his seat with both hands clamped over his mouth. His wild eyes did all the talking for him while Jennifer responded, mouthing: "Oh... my... God!"

Jim nodded feverishly, and glanced up again to follow the exchange. His feelings were mixed: sure, Alex was an overzealous douche sometimes, but he was also fiercely passionate about mutant rights, plus he was his friend. And a friend's loyalty is solid, like a rock. However, Tess had just trumped him with her ace-in-the-hole story, and it was going to take something special for Alex to come back from that fighting. And fight, he did. It was admirable. But Tess is so easy on the eyes. She is admirable. No. Alex is his friend. It was for Jim to stand by his friend. But then there were the videos of Tess on YouTube, in that leotard, swinging, spinning, curling, cartwheeling, bending-

"COME ON, TESS!"

[Tess Abrahams]

At any other time Jim's electric cry would have elicited a laugh or a good-natured eyeroll, maybe a headshake and a surrender to the break in tension needed to end the conversation. But now it just made everything feel like a heated tennis match, like they were volleying for points. This wasn't about sides.

Tess shrugged. "As far as I'm concerned, there is no aside from when it comes to him and his, Alex."

Before he could reply and before a perfectly good load of whites could be marred by olive oil, Tess rescued the salad bowl and held it out.

"You're welcome to this, if you want. I'm not hungry and I gotta run to the market for Anna anyway, we're running low on toilet paper. Anybody need anything?"

[Alex Kaine]

Alex took the bowl somewhat listlessly, regarding Tess with a face of stone. "No, I'm good," he said. From the couch, Jennifer simply shrugged and shook her head. When Tess left the room, she took most of the atmosphere with her.

Alex waited until the kitchen door rattled shut and left the ground floor in silence. Then he turned to face his roommate on the couch. "Come on, Tess?"

[Jim Lewinski]

"I was lost in the moment," he answered defensively.

The issue of National Georgraphic had been long abandonned, and mingled with an array of weathered magazines on the coffee table - a dazzling juxtaposition of teenage mutant interests. Instead, Jim's attention was fixed squarely upon Alex, and he held him with a fascinated, and somewhat fearful, gaze. His bouncing legs provided a ceaseless drumroll.

"I gotta tell you, that was pretty intense, buddy. Do you believe her story about Hurricane X?"

[Alex Kaine]

Alex drummed his fingers on the side of the salad bowl and shot a look toward the kitchen. "I don't know. I mean, I don't think she's lying, but... maybe she doesn't know the whole story or something."

"You mean maybe Saladin kidnapped her friend and screwed up her powers in a nice way?" Jennifer asked reproachfully.

"No, I mean..." Alex tilted back his head and started hunting the ceiling for answers. "Look, even if he did everything Tess said he did, it doesn't mean his ideas are wrong. She's just really emotional about it, I mean, who wouldn't be?"

[Jim Lewinski]

"Tess is also like an extreme case," Jim added, knowingly, "A traumatic personal experience has tainted her point of view, which is why, despite her first-hand experience with Saladin and his crew, you gotta be careful when taking into account her summary of the facts. Right?"

While Jennifer looked dubious, Alex was clearly thankful for Jim's logical interjection. It wasn't that he blindly supported his friend, in fact, as a man of science, Jim was not an advocate of any kind of violence. And nor was he unprincipled, it was just that in his experience every hot-topic debate about mutants quickly descended into the realms of personal feelings and hyperbole. Alex was a testament to this everyday, which was why he took his ongoing crusade with a pinch of salt - it was when he allowed his beliefs to endanger himself that it concerned him. And there was Saladin plastered across his chest, and if he could inspire that degree of angry passion out of a fellow mutant, what kind of response would he elicit from the fearful everyman?

"Let's put it this way, Jen," he continued, fully aware of the controversy that laced his following words, "We have deeply personal reasons to hate the Three Elevens, but do you ever stop to think about the validity of their arguments? People like them are afraid of mutants and, when you look at the Miami thing, their fear is often justified. I don't know about you, but I'd be pretty pissed if some super-powered human hurricane machine flooded my lawn, ripped the roof off my house, and tossed my fuckin' cat into the sea. Did you hear about that? Some crispy old broad launched a search and rescue operation for her beloved American Bobtail, Mister Binks or some shit, and after three days hunting through the rubble and the garbage and the shit, fuckin' thing washes up on South Pointe wrapped in seaweed like a bit of soggy sushi. Last I heard, there was a tearful memorial service in the park where Mister Binks is now buried and, all the while, this crazy broad still has the rain pissing through her roof. Talk about gettin' your priorities straight but that's fuckin' cat people for you, am I right?"