Tell me a story

by John Duffin

"So."

"Do you think he's gonna be alright?"

"Do you doubt it?"

"Of course not! He's the toughest person I've ever met. A little thing like this isn't going to slow him down."

"Of course not."

"Yeah." Pause. "So."

Pause. "Are you comfortable?" "Sure. S'no problem. I can sit like this for hours if I have to."

"You may sleep for a while if you like. I will wake you if anything happens."

"Nah. I'm not sleepy." Pause. "Do you think something's gonna happen?"

"What I meant was, I will wake you when he emerges."

"It's okay. I'm not sleepy. Just a little bored. When do you think they're gonna tell us what's happening?"

"I am sure that they will tell us as soon as they are able."

Pause. "That means that they're busy just trying to keep him alive."

"We cannot know that for certain. It may simply be a complication that will be easier to fix if attended to at once."

"Are you sure?"

Pause. "No. I cannot be."

Silence.

"Tell me something about him."

"What could I know that you do not?"

"There's gotta be something. Tell me a story about you and him. It will help pass the time."

"Oh, I do not think that I have any interesting stories--"

"Come on. Tell me something that only you and him know. Then only the three of us will know about it together."

Sigh. "Are you sure that this will help?"

"I hope it will."

"Very well." Slow smile. "Has he told you of the time that he kissed me?"

"WHAT? No! I've never heard that one. Tell me."

Deep breath. "It was not so very long ago. Perhaps a year. You had just gone to join your new teammates. He and I were travelling together in the Carpathian mountains."

"What for?"

"We had heard tales of an old Soviet foundry that had become derelict. The rumours claimed that a carbonadium synthesizer was buried within."

"Huh. Why didn't he call some of his old friends?"

"He could not contact Mr. North, apparently, so he was prepared to go out alone. I insisted that he take someone along. He chose me."

Giggle. "Serves you right."

"I suppose so. In any case, it took us some hours to travel to the region by jet, and days more to find the foundry. It was rough, rocky country, heavily forested. I suppose that I slowed him down a little, but he never spoke of it. In fact, we exchanged few words on our hike."

"The trip was taxing, but certainly not beyond our endurance, so we happened in time upon the facility. Its placement and surrounds were quite suspicious."

"How?"

"Well, there was no road to the facility. We had spent days looking for an old road that was not there. It was mere chance that we actually came across the foundry. He told me that some of the evergreens were not native to the region-- that they were deliberately planted to make the facility difficult to spot from the air, chosen for their quick growth. There had once been an airstrip, but it had been devoured by those trees."

"We were cautious when approaching the door, and for good reason. The scent of an old enemy apparently clung to the area, and the lock had been forced. There was blood on the handle."

"Not Omega Red!"

"No. He certainly would have tried to send me back if it had been Omega Red. In any case, he was nervous enough to tell me to be careful."

"We did not enter right away, but instead tracked the progress of our foe, backward, into the woods. There were traces of blood for sharp eyes and sharp noses to detect. We came in short order to a tall, powerful fir that had the shreds of a parachute tangled in its branches. There was a great deal of blood on the trunk of the tree, and around its roots."

"We came to the conclusion that our quarry had lost enough blood that he was no longer a threat to us. In this we were mistaken."

"You're startin' to scare me here. At least I know you both came back OK."

Smile. "Storytelling is a part of my culture. Forgive my embroidery.

"We returned to the door of the facility, which was closed. The padlock, as I said, was broken. I could see several bright marks on the surface of the lock, which suggested that it had been struck several times with a blunt object before it had finally given way."

"The small lock seemed an inadequate protection for a building as dangerous as a derelict foundry, but it seemed to me that the seclusion of the area provided its own kind of protection."

"I pushed on the door to open it, but encountered resistance. Surprised, I pushed with all my might, but to no avail. I was brushed aside, and he put his shoulder to the door and gave a great shove. The door slid steadily and slowly open, with a low scraping noise."

"He poked his head inside, and told me that a number of ingots had been pushed against the door. This was strange, because such a secluded location could not admit of many visitors. Our quarry must have feared pursuit. He had apparently stacked the ingots at the cost of more of his blood."

"I can't figure out who it could be. Whoever it was had to be tough to do something like that."

"Tough, or desperate. Even the smallest and weakest among us can do amazing things in desperation.

"We were of two minds about our approach to the synthesizer. I wanted to move quietly through the building, looking in likely places without disturbing its inhabitant. He thought that confronting the man was the best approach, to make certain that he did not have the synthesizer, and to scare him away.

"His approach seemed to me to have some merit, though I worried about the health of our adversary. With the blood he had lost, I was not sure that the man could survive a hike through the Carpathians.

"We decided to use his approach, with the exception that we would offer to help the man rather than threaten him."

"Did it work?"

Smile. "Listen to the story, young one. We walked together through the foundry, which was blackened from heat. Monumental cauldrons and furnaces surrounded us. Nearby, there were traces of coal and coke, which must have fueled the fires. The air, even after years had gone by, smelled poisonous. I cannot imagine how foul it smelled to more sensitive noses."

"The interior was dark, with the lights long gone and the windows blackened with soot. He held my hand in order to keep me from stumbling, though I could still see reasonably well. I did not withdraw my hand, however."

"Do not grimace. You have held his hand often enough."

Pause. "Maybe."

"We walked so, together, following a trail that I could not make out. It wove between the cauldrons and the furnaces and the sad piles of dust, around abandoned machines that were probably broken. I was looking, as we walked, for likely hiding places for the synthesizer, and there were a multitude of them."

"He paused before a spartan flight of metal stairs, that led to a catwalk system above us. He asked quietly about the possibility of using my powers to fly him up to the catwalk, that he might surprise our quarry. I replied that the poisonous residues in the foundry would be stirred up by any wind of mine. There was too much metal in the area, for that matter, to rely upon my lightning."

"He nodded, and called out, 'Kilgrave!'"

"Killgrave? That's kind of a melodramatic codename."

"That was his family name. His codename was the Purple Man."

Giggle. "Pathetic! I'd go by Kilgrave, too." Pause. "Why was he called the Purple Man?"

Amused smile. "Guess."

"He wore purple all the time?"

"True, but that is not the whole reason."

"He was purple?" Pause. "No way!" Helpless laughter. "You're making that up!"

Chuckle. "Not a bit of it. He was purple. He wore purple clothing."

"No wonder he went to hide in the dark!"

Pause. "I listened to the echoes of his voice in the great open space, with all of its rough fierceness. There is little gentleness in him when speaking to his enemies. Kilgrave could hear this, too, and did not respond."

"He laid a finger to my lips to silence me, so I schooled my breathing and slowed my heartbeat and said nothing. He cocked his head toward a sound that I could not hear, and after a moment he said, 'I can hear you breathing, Kilgrave. Come out and get it over with."

"Still the Purple Man did not come out, so we climbed up to the catwalk. I followed him along the metal walkway, both of us moving loudly enough to indicate our position to the hidden man. We paused before a stack of crates that partially obstructed a door. 'Last chance, Kilgrave', he said."

Snort. "I wouldn't come out, either."

"Out came his claws. I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to caution him not to unduly frighten our quarry, but he ignored me and batted at the crates. They split open, spilling straw and wood splinters onto the floor, far below. He kicked the last pieces of the crates off of the catwalk, and behind their space was the Purple Man."

"He was bleeding from a cut that ran from the outside of his thigh to his third rib. It was shallow, but probably not clean, and was likely causing him considerable pain. He gazed up at us in fear, probably believing that we meant to hurt him further."

Silence.

"So? Go on."

"You are not bored?"

Growl. "You haven't gotten to the good part yet."

"Very well. The Purple Man is more dangerous than his name would imply. His body releases pheremones that render people susceptible to suggestions from him."

Pause. "So what did he say?"

"Nothing as of yet. I began to feel a bit dizzy and distracted by his scent, but he said nothing. Logan was the first to speak."

"He said, 'Stop with the hormones, Kilgrave, or you will regret it.'

"And the Purple Man said, 'Go away. Leave me alone.'

"I felt a powerful urge to do just that, but I found that I could resist his suggestion. Perhaps it was his wound, or the poisons in the air, but I found that I could resist."

"Logan, as it happened, could not. His heightened senses left him more affected by the pheremones than I. He turned to leave, but I held his arm, and he stayed."

"'Go away!' the Purple Man screamed, but I clapped my hands over Logan's ears, and held him in place. Logan wanted to leave, but was unwilling to hurt me in order to do so. I could see that he was struggling against Kilgrave's chemicals. Sweat was beading his brow, and he stayed."

"I said then, 'We only want to help you', but Kilgrave did not believe me.

"He said, 'Kill her! Cut her open!'"

Gulp. "That's not good."

"No. But he would not do it. He ground his teeth together, and said 'Not in this lifetime, Kilgrave!' and took a step toward him."

"Oh, wow."

"The Purple Man shrieked in fear, and shrank back. Logan reached down and grabbed him by the collar. He was very angry, and breathing heavily, and he has a murderous look in his eye."

"'Let me go!', he shouted, and Logan found that he could not resist this command. He dropped Kilgrave, but still looked very angry."

"Kilgrave pulled himself to his feet, one hand on the railing, and eyed both of us warily. He muttered, 'Stay here', and tried to edge his way past Logan. I moved to block his path. I think that he was still startled that I could resist his commands."

"He tried to push past me, but I would be more than a match for him, physically, even if he had not lost so much blood. He could not move, and he knew he could not get Logan to attack me.

"I told him then to listen to what I had to say, that he had nothing to lose. I suppose he did not believe me, for the next words out of his mouth were, 'Kiss her.'"

"I was a bit startled at this, and perhaps more startled when I felt an arm encircle my waist. He bent me backward, and pressed his lips to mine."

Pause. "What was it like?"

"His stubble scratches, but he is otherwise an expert kisser."

Sigh. "I knew it."

A raised eyebrow.

"Um... what did you do then?"

"What could I do? I could not use my powers in that place. Logan was much stronger than I, though he was not hurting me. I kissed him back."

"You WHAT!"

"I kissed him back."

Pause. "Oh."

"The Purple Man slipped past us, and slowly made his way out of the foundry. I could hear him pick up a chair. After he closed the door, he tried unsuccessfully to wedge it shut using the chair. I suppose, then, he walked away. We certainly did not see him again."

"So... what happened then?"

"Well, a short while after I could no longer hear the Purple Man, Logan released me, and said, 'Well, that got rid of him.'"

Laughter. "What? You're kidding!"

"No. That is exactly what he said. We located the synthesizer, which had been secreted in one of the broken machines. Logan took it. The two of us left then, and we have never spoken of it."

"Cool."

"Thank you."

Silence.

"So."

"Your turn."

"My turn? I don't have any stories."

"Nonsense."

"I don't have any stories like THAT."

"Your story does not have to be the same. It can be anything you like."

"OK."

Smile. "You are, after all, a bit young yet to have been kissed."

"Whatever! I've been kissed!"

"I would like to hear about it."

"Too bad. I'll tell you a story about Wolvie and me instead."

"Do you mean that it was not Logan who kissed you?"

Giggle. "Oh, that was not funny! That was SO not funny!"

"Tell me your story."

"All right. This one is from one time when he visited me in Massachussetts. We'd been having trouble with our biosphere... have you ever been to the school?"

"Not since Sean renovated it, no."

"Actually, Forge renovated it."

Pause. "Please continue."

"'Kay. So, anyway, there was this thing in our biosphere called a Snark. Or, no. It was a Fetch. Something like that. Anyway, Emma called Logan and asked him to take care of it, so he came."

"After he scared it into hiding for a while, he was going to leave, but I asked him to stay just one night, to visit me. It was pretty hard to convince him, actually, which hurt a lot, but he finally said that he'd take me out with him for a while."

"Emma told him not to keep me out late, but Wolvie said, 'She's old enough to make up for a few late nights. She used to be an X-Man.' Emma was so mad, but she couldn't say anything."

"Of course not."

"That's right. So we got on his motorcycle, and he let me sit in front of him, and we rode all the way to New York. It took hours and hours, and I got really sleepy, so I just leaned back and put my head in the crook of his neck, and closed my eyes."

Smile. "He could make anyone feel safe."

"I didn't sleep, though. What's that cologne he wears?"

"He wears none. He does smell of cedar and pine when he has been outdoors."

"That must be it. Anyway, it kept me awake. It's a great smell. A lot better than cigars and rye whiskey, anyway. I wish it had lasted, but then we got into the city, with all of its delightful smells. Yuck."

"So we were driving through Brooklyn, right, and we come to this bar. And, I mean, this place was nasty. Really ugly. There was a guy at the door who's as big as Colossus. I mean, really big. He let us in with no trouble or anything."

"The inside of the place was disgusting. Full of smoke and sweaty fat old men in leather. And they were all staring at us. All of them."

"Logan smokes."

"He quit."

"Truly?"

"No joke. He hasn't had a cigar in months. He doesn't drink the hard stuff anymore, either."

"Anyway, we walked up to this table where this old Native American guy was sitting, and Wolvie said hi and introduced me. I think his name was Joe. Or, no. It was... I don't remember. I'll call him Joe."

"Very well."

"Joe and Wolvie go way back, I guess, and they'd agreed to meet at the bar that night, so that Joe could fly him to Japan. I was sort of afraid that I was going to get left behind, that he was going to drop me off at the mansion or something, but he let me come. I didn't even have to ask."

"We sat there for a half hour or so, while Joe finished his beer, then we headed back out of town to a big old highway that he'd closed off, and that's where his plane was. It was a big two-engine prop plane. Looked kind of rickety to me, but Joe started pouring fuel into it out of the back of a pickup truck that he had nearby, and once it was full it started fine."

"I thought I would feel the turbulence more in a little plane, but really there was no difference. We stopped a bunch of times for more fuel. The whole time, Wolvie didn't say much of anything, and I didn't know Joe well at all, so I slept a lot. There was nothing to look at out of the window until we got over Alaska."

"Kind of strange that you would fly to Alaska to go to Japan, but I guess that's how you do it. Joe said he could get from Anchorage to Hokkaido on one tank, but we'd pretty much be floating in on fumes, which didn't make me feel too safe."

"It was kind of a crap trip. Anyway, we finally get near Japan, and sure enough, the engines quit."

"No!"

"Yep. Here we are, floating in a big pile of scrap metal over water, with no pontoons, and we've run out of gas. Joe says he'll just glide in and come down in a rice paddy. Wolvie says good luck finding a rice paddy in northern Hokkaido."

"What happened?"

"We found a rice paddy. Or at least, a really wet field. The landing still sucked. A lot. But at least I just got bruises instead of broken bones or something."

"You can imagine what those little rice plants, or weeds, or whatever they were, did to the propellers and landing gear. And that place really smelled horrible. I had to throw out those slacks."

"So, Joe had to stay there with the plane, standing in the muck, while Wolvie and I squelched off to find a taxi. We got to this town, and a guy sold us his truck (which was a clunker) and we drove to Sapporo, spent the night, and then caught the ferry over to the main island. That was cool."

"How was the hotel?"

"It sucked. I thought we'd get a room like in a normal American hotel, but instead we each got what amounted to a closet. My room didn't even have its own bathroom! I had to go down and shower with six other girls, and you would not BELIEVE how embarrassing it was to smell like that in front of strangers. The rest of them all left the shower right away and then headed down into this bath area. Together. Yuck."

"Anyway. Getting back to it. We jumped into a rent-a-car, and drove all the way to Osaka."

"What did you talk about on this trip?"

"He wasn't really talky. I mean, less than usual. I respected his needs, you know? Backed off a little bit. Tried not to motor my mouth so much."

Frown. "Stop laughing! I can be quiet! I can! Oh, forget it."

"No, please. Forgive me. Please. Tell your story."

"OK then. Anyway, we stopped in Nagoya for the night, and this time we spent the night on a mat in the middle of a big drafty room instead of in closets. That was almost worse. I was freezing."

"So we get to Osaka the next day, and Wolvie looks at me and says 'I've got to find someone."

"I don't know what to say, so I just nod, and he says, 'When I do, I want you to stay in the car.'"

"He looked really upset and angry, so I started to worry about him a lot. After a while, I couldn't hold it in anymore, and I said 'Is it going to be dangerous?'"

"And he said, 'Not for me, but it would be for you.'"

"So I sat quiet for a while, and then we pulled up to this really ritzy- looking house, and he moved to get out of the car, and I said, 'Are there going to be guards?'"

Smile. "Very sneaky of you to save that question."

"Thank you. 'Yeah', he said, 'there are going to be guards. Don't worry.'"

"And I said, 'Wouldn't I be safer with you watching me, than out in the car, where the guards might see me sitting by myself?'"

"So he swore a lot, and said that it was OK, and that I should come in, but that he was going to do something that he didn't want me to see."

"So I said, 'Wolvie, you could never do anything that I wouldn't respect', and that made him rethink it and he tried to make me stay in the car again, but he ended up bringing me in anyway."

"Were there a lot of guards?"

"A mess of them. But you know Wolvie, they couldn't stop him. He just went through those ninja like they were the Yancy Street gang."

"Ninja? Hand ninja?"

"Yep. I took care of one myself, too. Blasted him in the eyes so he couldn't see, and then kicked him right behind the left ear, and down he went."

"So, we took care of all of those ninja, and we went through the rest of this house. Wolvie wasn't even breathing hard. He was really cold."

"We came into the garden, and there was Matsu'o."

"Why did the two of you go to his home?"

Sad smile. "Because it was May 27."

"Pardon me?"

"Wolvie looked at him and said, 'It's pay day again, Matsu'o.'"

"Matsu'o just smiled, and raised his hand. A door opened, and you could hear the hiss when air came out, and this really tall, thick guy with short blond hair and dead eyes stepped out. He lifted his arm, and it morphed into some kind of gun."

"So naturally, I ducked, and Wolvie jumped straight at the guy! I watched, and you could see the guy bringing his gun arm up, but he was slow. Way too slow. Wolvie stapled him to the wall, right through his shoulder, and then cut off his gun arm. It was sick! A bunch of green stuff came out. I don't want to think about it."

"He pulled his claws out, and the guy just passed out from the pain. Fell right on the grass. So Wolvie gets this look of disgust on his face, you know, and says, 'Bushwacker? C'mon, Matsu'o. Is that the best that your blood money can buy?'"

"Matsu'o made a lunge for me, but I dodged him, no problem, and Wolvie caught him by the back of the neck and turned him around, and said, 'You aren't very quick on your feet.' And he gave me this look, like I'm supposed to look the other way, but I wouldn't."

"So he said, 'Jubilee, I can't do this if you're looking. I just can't.'"

"What did he mean to do? What was the importance of the date?"

"So I said, 'I meant it when I said you could never do anything that I wouldn't respect. I know you wouldn't do anything wrong.'"

"We stood there like that, for a while, with Matsu'o not daring to move. Then he let him down, and said, 'Same time next year, Matsu'o.'"

"And that snake pulled out a knife when Wolvie turned his back, but he heard it and grabbed Matsu'o's arm. He twisted it around, but Matsu'o wouldn't drop the knife, 'cause that hand was metal, so Wolvie punched him in the side of the head, instead. And down he went."

"Then the two of us left, and met up with Joe, and we came back to America. I was gone more than a week. Man, were Emma and Sean mad, but I didn't care."

"You still have not told me what the importance of the date was."

"It's the day Matsu'o killed Wolvie's fiancee, Lady Mariko."

Pause. "Of course."

"He swore to come back every year on the same day, and cut off another little piece of Matsu'o."

"Except for that year."

"Yeah."

Silence.

"Thank you, Storm."

"Thank you, Jubilee."

Creak.

"What's with the long faces? It ain't that bad. Christ, you'd think somebody died."

Grin. "Wolvie!"

"You seem to be back to your normal self, old friend."

"Sure. Why not? I won't be a hundred percent until I get a beer, though. You two look tired. You haven't been sittin' out here all night, have you?"

"Nah. I just got here."

"I have not been here for long."

"Hmph. Good. Let's go out, then. I need some fresh air."

"That sounds perfect."

Pause. "So, what'd the two of you talk about?"

Smiles.

~~~ FIN ~~~