Chapter 34 - Bad Company

Careless. Devin had been too careless and now Yana and Henric were kidnapped by an unknown organization along with the leaders of two of the most well-known, and powerful mutant groups. He wanted to be careful about who found out about his abilities and what he was capable of so as to avoid trouble in the future, but now that hesitation had lead to this.

It was then that a burning and all-consuming rage rose up within Devin causing the edges of his vision to darken and a metallic taste to coat his tongue. He would find the kids and the ones responsible for this attack. Who ever thought to do this would regret their decisions when he showed up and force fed them their own entrails.

As Devin's rage soon cooled and coalesced into steely determination and a coldness that would send shivers down the spines of any observer, Devin saw that a couple of the men that had attacked were still alive and relatively unharmed, only knocked out. They would be the ones to tell him who had ordered the hit and maybe what the goal of this ops was.

"We need to find out where the others were taken so we can rescue them." Kitty and Nightcrawler both said as the X-men had gathered and discussed what to do while a dozen feet away was Mystique and what was left of the Brotherhood probably doing the same. The two groups were interrupted when they saw that Devin was collecting a few of the unconscious men they had downed and was dragging them by an ankle each towards the house with a cold look in his eyes.

"Wait! Where are you taking them?" Cyclops demanded to know which caused Devin to pause for a second to reply.

"First off, I'm not part of your team so watch your mouth Summers and second, while all of you are busy talking I'm gonna find out where this garbage came from and where they took Yana and Henric. So, stay out of my way Boy Scout." Devin said as he began walking forward again.

"How are you gonna do that? We don't have anyone to read their minds now that all of the telepaths are gone." Mystique chimed in as Cyclops' temper flared. It was then that Devin looked over his shoulder at the two groups and what they saw startled almost everyone. Devin's eyes had changed to a bright, burning red with a white reptilian slit for a pupil instead of a round, black pupil. They could also see what looked like scales beginning to grow at the corners of his eyes and along his temples.

"By any means necessary." Devin said before turning around and disappearing into the house. It was a full minute before the majority of the two teams slowly relaxed. The only ones that hadn't been too affected were Wolverine, Mystique, Storm, Rogue, and Cyclops though each of them had different reactions than others as well.

Devin had dragged the two into the house and tied them up separately, one in each room down in the bas.e.m.e.nt One man he strapped face down onto the table in the medical room while the other was tied to a chair in the War Room. Devin made a mental note to add holding cells just on the off chance this were to happen again in the future.

Devin remembered that there was a way to interrogate people without having to resort to the more nasty methods that he had seen in the first Punisher movie that might work well with this situation. He gathered the necessary supplies while the man was unconscious. He pulled a steak from the fridge and placed it in a pan and put that on a small table beside his prisoner and then sat down nearby for the man to awaken.

It was a few minutes later that the man finally showed signs of waking up. As he looked around with the limited movement his position allowed, a look of confusion then apprehension crossed his features as he finally remembered what had happened. After another look he finally spotted Devin watching him.

"No one is coming for you. Your friends packed up and left already. They probably think you're dead." Devin said as a new nervous look appeared on the tied down mans features. Devin dragged his chair over to the man so that he was literally right in front of the mans face.

"Here is what is gonna happen. We are gonna spend some quality time together and at some point I'm gonna ask you a few questions. Ah! Don't say anything just yet as I want to give you a little incentive to tell me the truth first." Devin said before he raised his hand in front of the man and snapped his fingers. This caused a small flame to appear above his index finger's tip. Devin had found that thanks to his new bloodline he had minimal control of the seven elements that correspond with the spirits. He wasn't good enough to actually cast spells yet but something like maintaining a flame the same size as a match's was easy. With a little concentration Devin intensified the flame till it was an eye-stinging white similar to a cutting torch that became extremely uncomfortable that close to the man's face.

"2000 Degrees. Hot enough to turn steel into butter. You see it doesn't hurt at first, it's too hot. The flame sears the nerve-endings shut, killing them. That's when the shock sets in and all you'll feel is cold. Then you'll smell burning meat and after that? Well you'll wish you'd never set foot near this place." Devin said before he stood up and moved to the side of the table out of the man's line of sight.

The man for the most part immediately started to thrash and beg, but Devin continued forward. With a wave of his other hand, an ice shard appeared. Devin then put the flame to the steak and half a second later touched the ice shard to the man's back which started him screaming. Devin continued this for a few minutes before leaning forward towards the man's face.

"Looks like I'm burning off the last of that holiday fat." Devin said before he moved back and continued. After a few more minutes the man finally agreed to talk. Devin set the shard down on the tray but kept the flame going.

"Remember if you lie to me, we get to restart where we left off." Devin said while waving the flame around in front of the man. The man was more than happy to tell Devin everything. The man that had sent them was William Stryker who Devin knew as the former leader of the Weapon X Program. As Devin continued to ask questions he found out that Stryker is out to destroy all mutants to save mankind from damnation. Stryker had gone full holy war on the mutant community. The location of the base was located beneath a lake in the north called Alkali Lake which was the same lake in the second x-men movie. Unfortunately the man wasn't high enough to know what Stryker's plan is though if it involves two powerful telepaths, a reality warping woman and a man with enough magnetic power to rearrange the Eiffel Tower into a rubics cube then it wasn't anything good.

Devin gripped each side of the man's face and looked into the man's eyes with a smile on his face.

"Thank you so much for cooperating." Devin said before he torqued the man's head quickly to the side and broke his neck. Cleaning up everything and leaving the body on the table for the moment. He left the room and entered the room with the other man to find him awake and terrified.

"Oh good you're awake. So you're next up for twenty questions, interrogation edition." Devin said as he summoned the flame again to the tip of his finger. Needless to say the man complied immediately without any problem. He even admitted to having soiled himself. While the man broke down and started crying Devin started considering how to dispose of the bodies when Alice finally chimed in.

'Master, you have finally accessed two new features. Would you like to hear about them?'

"Yes Alice." Devin said as he continued to wonder about body disposal possibilities.

'The first feature is the Dual Transformation ability. This allows you to use two spirits and their abilities at once. The drawback is that you use twice the spirit power so you will have less time duration. The requirements for this is for you to have enough spirit power and the dragoon spirits need to be within a level of each other.'

'Alright that means I'm not restricted totally to a certain set of abilities.' Devin said as he put the previous thoughts aside so he could think about all the new possibilities.

'The second new feature is that you have unlocked one of the micro-worlds that were given to you as a part of your transferal to this world. You have unlocked "Ember Fields" which is the fire world that is tied to the Red-Eyed Dragoon Spirit.'

'Perfect timing Alice!' Devin thought as he walked over to the last of the two prisoners and snapped his neck as well.

'Alice how do I send things to the micro-worlds?' Devin asked as he untied the corpse from the chair.

'Master simply hold your hand out towards the object or person in question and say "Transport to" and then name which micro-world you would like it sent to.'

"Great!" Devin said as he aimed his hand towards the corpse.

"Transport to Ember Fields." Devin said as the body shimmered before disappearing. Returning to the medical room he did the same again with the other body.

"Alright now the only thing left is to get geared up. Then I wipe this little group as well as that piece of trash Stryker off the face of the planet."