Silence stretched between them for a long moment.
“You’re awfully confident for someone sitting in a locked room with no idea how he got here.” Emma let the pause sit before adding,
“Where’s that coming from, exactly?”
Marcus leaned back in his chair.
Well.
From whatever news I’ve watched, whatever plot knowledge I’ve got, and everything else I’ve pieced together since waking up in this mess.
He turned it over for a moment, thinking through the situation the world was actually in.
Emma Frost’s motives — what would someone like her actually want, in 2010, in a world where Tony Stark had the one piece of technology everyone with ambition would kill to get their hands on?
The Arc Reactor.
The Iron Man suit.
Let’s just see if that’s what this is about.
“…You know what, Emma?”
She raised an eyebrow at the sudden use of her first name.
“Since you can’t read my mind,” he said, “how about I read yours instead?”
He leaned forward slightly, meeting her eyes.
“You’re doing all this just to get your hands on Stark’s tech. The Arc Reactor. The suit. That’s what this is really about, isn’t it?”
Emma didn’t seem surprised on the surface.
Inside, she was a little shaken.
Am I really that easy to read?
Who is this guy, if he’s not a mutant?
“Well. You seem pretty sure of that.” She finally spoke after a moment, testing whether he actually knew something or was just throwing out a guess, hoping it would land.
“You’re good at making things up.”
“Sure. Or I’m right, and you just don’t want to say it out loud.” Marcus shrugged.
“Either way, doesn’t change much for me. If you think I’m bluffing, fine. What am I even supposed to say to that?”
She didn’t double back on the question.
She just sat there, looking at his face.
“You know that girl Marie likes you?” she asked.
“Yeah, I know.” Marcus shrugged, easy, like it was nothing.
“Why, you jealous?”
This kid.
Why can’t he answer anything straight?
Every single time, he has to throw something in just to annoy me.
She took a deep breath, willing her blood pressure back down.
Focus.
“By the way,” Marcus said, before she could get another word out, “if you’re thinking about using me to manipulate Marie into working for you — that’s not gonna go the way you think.”
Emma’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Oh?”
“She trusts me, sure. But that trust isn’t unlimited, and it’s definitely not strong enough for me to just walk in and tell her ‘hey, do whatever this lady says’ and have her go along with it.”
“You underestimate your own influence.”
“No, I think you’re overestimating it.” Marcus met her eyes.
“Push too hard, too fast, and she’s not gonna listen to me — she’s gonna feel cornered. And a scared kid who feels cornered doesn’t cooperate. She runs. Or worse, she turns on both of us.”
Emma said nothing for a moment, just watching him.
“So what exactly are you proposing instead?”
“Slow it down. Let this actually happen naturally instead of forcing it.” He spread his hands slightly.
“You want her loyal, not compliant. Those aren’t the same thing, and if you try to shortcut it, you’re gonna lose whatever leverage you think you have.”
Emma tapped one nail against the table, considering.
He has a point.
Compliance breaks the first chance it gets.
Loyalty doesn’t.
“Fine,” she said.
“Say I agree to that. What do you want in return?”
“Simple.” Marcus shrugged.
“Let me stay with her.”
Obviously I want the points too, but she doesn’t need to know that part.
“That’s it?”
“That’s the main thing.” He held up a finger.
“One more condition, though. She’s not a prisoner. Not locked in some room, not watched every second like a lab specimen. She has to actually be able to live, or this whole ‘loyalty’ plan falls apart before it starts.”
“You’re making a lot of demands for someone who arrived here zip-tied in the back of a van.”
“You’re the one who needs a mutant that actually works for you,” Marcus said.
“I’m just telling you how to get one that sticks around.”
She was quiet for a moment, one hand resting flat against the table.
“Even if I agree to all of that,” she said slowly,
“I still don’t know what her ability actually does. For all I know, it’s not even worth the trouble.” Her eyes flicked toward the door, toward the direction of Marie’s room.
“Most mutant abilities are garbage, frankly. Minor enhancements. Party tricks. The genuinely useful ones are rare.”
Marcus was quiet for a second, weighing something.
She’s going to find out eventually anyway.
Better it comes from me than from whatever her lab coats dig up on their own — at least this way I control how it sounds.
He let out a slow breath.
“Alright. I’ll tell you what she can do.”
Emma waited, arms loosely crossed, an expression that said she still expected to be underwhelmed.
“She absorbs things through skin contact,” Marcus said.
“Memories. Personality. Strength. If the other person’s a mutant, their power too — temporarily, usually. But the longer she holds contact, the worse it gets for whoever she’s touching. Push it far enough, and it’s not temporary anymore. It’s permanent. For them, that means brain damage, coma, sometimes worse. For her—”
He paused.
“For her, it means she keeps whatever she took. Permanently. Strength, memories, powers — all of it, hers to keep, for good.” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Silence.
Emma’s mouth parted slightly — just for a second, before she caught herself and closed it again.
“She could absorb a mutant’s ability,” Emma said slowly, “and keep it. Permanently.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Do you understand what that means?” Emma leaned forward, both hands flat on the table.
“A girl who could theoretically collect every ability she’s ever touched. Stack them. Keep them all.”
“Yeah. Basically an All For One type deal.” Marcus said it casually, like it was obvious.
Emma blinked.
“A what?”
“All For One.” He waited a beat, watching her face stay blank.
“…Nothing. Never mind. Not important.”
Right.
No anime here.
Forgot for a second.
“Was that supposed to mean something to me?”
“Not really. Just something from where I’m from.” He waved a hand, moving past it.
“Point is, you get what I’m telling you. The upside is obvious. So’s the downside.”
Emma sat back slowly, some of her earlier composure returning, though her mind was clearly still working through the implications.
“The downside being what, exactly?”
“That kind of power doesn’t stay quiet forever. The second word gets out — and it will, eventually — every organization on the East Coast with a mutant division is going to want her. Or want her gone.” Marcus met her eyes.
“You want first-mover advantage on that. Which means you also want her happy enough to stay, not so caged she becomes a liability the moment someone offers her a way out.”
Emma thought of something before crossing one leg over the other, settling fully into the chair across from him.
“You’ve clearly thought about this more than someone who was kidnapped hours ago should have.”
“I had a long car ride,” Marcus said.
“Gave me time to think.”
She rose from her chair, smoothing down the front of her suit.
“Very well. We have an arrangement.” She moved toward the door.
“You’ll both be given quarters. Nothing monitored beyond standard security.”
“Appreciate it.”
“Don’t.” She paused at the frame, glancing back.
“You’ve made a compelling argument. That doesn’t mean I trust you yet.”
The door shut behind her.
Marcus sat alone in the silence for a moment, replaying the conversation, trying to figure out if he’d actually won something or just talked his way into a much nicer cage.
A soft chime rang out behind his eyes.
[Quest Complete: Save Marie (Rogue) from Frost Corporation Thugs.]
[Reward: 300 Merit Points, Inventory Unlock.]
[Bond Influence: Major Increase.]
[Current Balance: 330 Merit Points.]