Prisoners of Zeal

December 22, 2017:

Lorna wakes up in a prison, which happens to be Zealot's secret base. Some discoveries are made. (Emits by Nate)

The Bastille, Genosha

Characters

NPCs: Zealot, Phillip Moreau

Mentions: Magneto

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Genosha's single ultramax prison stands on the slopes of the mountains overlooking Hammer Bay. It is named after a famous French fortress/prison, the Bastille. Before the coup, this bleak place kept Genosha's political dissidents away from the public eye, as well as the odd superhuman that for some reason resisted the regular mutate processing. Phillip himself was jailed here for a few weeks before the coup.

After the coup all the prisoners were released by the Resistance. The prison was abandoned, there were plans to destroy it that never came forward as the civil war started.

A couple weeks ago a group of mutates loyal to Zealot dis tunnels to the lower levels, and quietly took over. Now the geothermic generators are working again, and a few hundred mutates live and train here, preparing for the war against the Acolytes.

In the upper levels one of the cells designed to contain super-humans has been repaired and prepared to contain a magnetokinetic. That is where Lorna wakes up, alone. She is still wearing her outfit/armor, but it doesn't matter since she can't feel or manipulate the magnetic fields.


Lorna slowly came to, her head pounding as she groaned and rolled over. She dragged her hand over her face, rubbing at her eyes as she blinked against the light above. A frown marred her face as she stretched out her hand before her, looking up at the wedding ring on her finger that sat black and dead to her sense. She sat up quickly then, her memory of what had happened coming to mind immediately.

"No.. no, no, no.." She breathed, her heart beginning to hammer in her chest as she pushed herself to stand.

A whirl around her followed as she struggled in vain to feel anything to sense, anything.. and felt nothing. Her eyes rounded as she pushed with that usual mental muscle that were her powers and nothing happened. Nothing was there.

A scream of panic and horror tore from her throat, her hands curling, claw-like, at her sides as she threw them up and kept trying to access her powers.


“Lorna!” Phillip’s voice comes from outside the cell, past a barred door from which she can see a hexagonal room with four other barred doors and a large sliding blast door. “Lorna, it is Phillip,” the man coughs, his voice sounds strained. “Are you alright? You have been unconscious all the night.”


Lorna rushed to the edge of her cell, trying to see where Phillip was. Her head ached, and everything ached really, but she blinked against the brightness of the otherwise sterile environment. "Phillip? Shit. I'm… I can't feel my powers. What's going on? Why can't I feel anything? How is it possible?" She voice was hushed and hurried, panic was quickly settling in as she battered against the door of her cell with her fists.

"Why can't I feel anything!?" She exhaled a trembling breath, combing her hands through her hair as she struggled to calm down. If she couldn't feel anything, that meant she had to be cut off from the fields, right? Was it the room, or the whole compound.

"Where are we? Did he get Marcos and Alex too?"


"Yes, it is me… and uh…" Phillip tries to slip a hand through the bars to signal Lorna, but they are just narrow enough he can't. "I think I am in the cell to your left. This is the Bastille, Genosha ultramax prison. They used to throw here the Resistance members that got caught and weren't murdered outright."

There is a soft grunt as the young man seems to decide to sit down on the floor. "There must be a power inhibitor working in your cell. It would be keyed to your powers and countering them, so while you are inside the cell you won't be able to access them. I thought this place had been gutted, Zealot must have some skilled technicians among his people."


Lorna exhaled a shaky breath, nothing about Alex, or Marcos. They had to have gotten away. Otherwise she'd hear them. Right? At least the news about the room and her powers was something. She just … had to get out of the room. Some how.

She swallowed a breath, glancing as far as she could to the left of her cell to try to see Phillip's, but it was hard to see much from her angle and she huffed in irritation.

Her hands slid over the bars of her cell, eyes closing as she pressed her face against the door.

"He thinks that my father will listen to his demands since he has me, doesn't he?" She laughed and it was a soft sound, bitter and her lips twisted as she leaned away from the doors and scanned her meager cell with a frown.


“I think Alex and Marcos escaped, they flew through the hole in the ceiling,” adds Phillip, trying to sound hopeful. As for the comment about Magneto… “I am sorry I got you into this situation. Your father will come to rescue, I am sure.” Well, somewhat sure. Okay, relatively sure it would look very bad if Magneto does not rescue his own daughter, so the man will come for her, right?

The blast door slides open.

Zealot steps into the hexagonal room. Phillip curses softly. “Good morning,” says the tall mutate. “Don’t worry, Phillip, I am not here to hurt you this time. I am here just to talk.” The blast door closes behind him.


Lorna twisted around as Phillip mentioned Alex and Marcos, "I know, I threw them up that way. Used the metal in my armor. Your brother can control anything from Genosha right?" She arched a brow and at the mention of her father she snorted.

"He'll come, even if there was a knife at my throat. If I die, he'll only use it to further his own agenda." She muttered and shook her head.

Her gaze leapt to the door again as the blast doors slid open and she scowled at Zealot as he stepped through and claimed he was only there to talk. He hadn't addressed her, so she didn't speak. She crossed her arms, her weight pitched forward on her toes as if she were ready to leap at the door.


"Well… I will listen," replies Phillip. "Still hurts to talk, I think your goons broke a couple ribs." To which Zealot chuckles. "I will send for a healer later. Pain purifies," he states, "pain purifies," he repeats, like a mantra that he has heard too often. He stands in front of Lorna's cell, now.

"Bullshit," mutters Phillip.

"And you," he sneers to the young woman. "Are you expecting your father or your X-Men? I have delivered my message to him. He refuses to leave my island. Maybe I should kill you now."


Lorna stood watching with rapt attention as she eyed Zealot when his focus returned to her. She lifted her chin up, and arched a brow. "I honestly expect neither at the moment. You see my father doesn't actually give a shit about me. When you took me, you really didn't do your research. I hate my father. He has never actually been in my life." She smiled thinly.

"So go ahead and kill me." She murmured and smiled thinly.

"But once you do that, realize that he'll use it as an excuse to get the X-men involved and then they'll work together. Also, the Atlantean king and I are friends and he was looking for an excuse to flood your little island. So, once I'm dead.. you can pretty much expect that Genosha will not only bleed, but cease to exist as a land mass." She shrugged.

"The X-men and Magneto toppled your government here at the height of their powers in three days. That wasn't even when it was personal.. I'd give them less than a few hours to wreck this place if they really wanted to."


"Oh no, I don't believe a word of what you just said," replies the mutate, walking away and pacing around the room. Jumpy. "His Acolytes are searching desperately. The Ironworker rages, I have seen him. But your X-Men, they are afraid their involvement in the coup is discovered. Fools. Magneto was his first enemy, wasn't he?"

"What the hell happened to you, Thomas?" Growls Phillip. "You can't do all that. Mutant powers do not work like that."

Zealot pauses, and looks at Phillip. "Oh, but I am much more than a mutant. Father gave me many gifts all over fifteen years. He came again and again. Every few months I went through the mutate process. Again. He wanted me strong, Phillip. I was his legacy, Genosha's protector. I have all the powers of a dozen mutants."


Lorna didn't show any visible, outward signs that she was surprised that her father actually had sent people out looking for her. She shrugged and tossed a lock of green hair backwards. "Yeah, so he's pissed at you. You took away one of his pawns. That's all I really am to him. A pawn." She snorted and leaned against her door, watching Zealot pace.

"Also, he was already wanting you dead, you really just sped up his time tables. And as I said, you just gave him more of an excuse. If it came between a choice of his ability to hold Genosha or me? He'd pick Genosha every time." She muttered and paused, glancing toward Phillip's cell.

"And as far as the X-men? That's just the public faces you won't see. If I die, the rest will definitely be happy to see this place burned to the ground. But yeah, go ahead and kill me now if you're so sure I'm lying." She glanced toward Phillip's door again briefly as he spoke and she glanced back to Zealot. She frowned faintly and fell silent.


"You are very eager to die, Polaris," the tall mutate moves towards her again. "Very well," he decides. "If it is how you say I have no reason to keep you alive."

"WAIT!" Cries Phillip. "She is probably right about Magneto, but not about the X-Men. They care about their own. You can negotiate with them!" Zealot blinks. "But I don't want anything from the X-Men," or does he? He seems to consider the possibilities of blackmailing the X-Men.


Lorna exhaled a breath, stepping back from the door as Zealot turned his attention to her. "Less about being eager to die and more of that whole, hey, heads up. But if you do kill me.. there are going to be a lot of people pissed off and they'll kill you too. Also all of Genosha. Which, contrary to popular belief, I do actually want to see Genosha become a place for everyone." She murmured.

He definitely took her words the wrong way from what she intended.

Well shit.

As Phillip cried she glanced toward him, her heart pounding in her chest.


Meanwhile Zealot is looking at Lorna considering. Then he speaks again. "Perhaps Magneto does not care for you, but he might for an unborn grandchild." He smiles unpleasantly, "congratulations are in order? Who is the father, the blond one or the dark haired boy with the lights. They both have strong feelings for you."

"Lorna is pregnant!" Blurts out Phillip. No one tells him the juicy gossip anymore!


Lorna blinked once, her brows furrowing in a sharp point at Zealot's words. It took her a beat, two, and she took a step back. Her hands automatically closing around her middle. "What?! No! That's.. that's not.. You're wrong. I can't be… n-no." She exhaled a shaky breath, her eyes wide as she stared aghast at the door.

Her heart hammered in her chest and she shook her head.

There was no way she could be.. well, there was obviously, and with the trip to alternative realities and time being askewed it was very possible that her birth control did not infact work as it should have. Or maybe it was that less than one percent possibility. Or a hundred, million other ways.

But how could Zealot possibly know? She wasn't Genoshan. Marcos wasn't either. There was no way. Right? And she was in a cell that turned off powers! He had to be lying.

"You're lying." She breathed.


Zealot hrumph irritated, "why would I lie about something like that? Ah, you didn't even know. How amusing." Back to pacing. "I will tell the X-Men to drive Magneto away from Genosha. If they do, I will let you go." Glace to Phillip. "Her. Not you, brother. You will stay with me."

'Pass' is what Phillip wants to reply. But then maybe Thomas will kill him, so he bites his tongue. "So, hey," lets talk about something else. "Why were you missing all these years? I mean, you could have come back home for Christmas. It will be Christmas soon."

"I was building for some years. Important works. Like the geothermal stations that empower our island," explains Zealot, sounding proud of his work. "Than I was…" he frowns. "Resting, I suppose. They kept me sleeping most of the time. Some fools thought I needed to remain sedated, I have no idea why father listened to them. Those fools are gone, I am thinking very clearly now, brother."


Lorna's features paled at Zealot's words, her hands closing tightly around her middle as she backed away from the door. Her breathing was quick, and shallow, and it as if everything inside her was suddenly alien and unknown. Now she was scared. Now she was panicking. Panic was hard to swallow and fight down before. Now it seemed impossible.

She couldn't sense the metal around her, couldn't sense the thrum of electricity. But something inside her snapped with that panic and the lights above sparked and flickered on and off ominiously as she bent double and screamed.

The room seemed to struggle to contain her, and alarms flickered in response.

Back up systems and back up systems clicked on and off before they rebooted and shut down her powers once more. Lorna collapsed on the floor, breathing hard, with boths of her hands supporting her as the zing of the brief return and shut down of her senses hit her with full force, leaving her trembling from the exertion of it.


Zealot walks again to the cell door, frowning as Lorna succeeds in briefly overriding the power inhibitors of the cell. There are backups, and there are backups of the backups. Few mutants can do what she just did, but obviously it is not the first time it happens.

"We will speak again tomorrow," he decides, seeing Lorna is almost unconscious and Phillip looks rather pale. The blast door opens briefly to let him go.

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