Liquid Metal: An X-men & QuickSilver Novel

Chapter Seventeen: All Good Things

Soundtrack: Love Song - Adele

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I stood alone in the same cellar of a room when everyone had eventually shuffled out. No one payed any attention to the fact that I had stayed behind, although some had given me questioning looks.

I heard a shifting noise behind me. my ears and honed in to the persons breathing. I knew who it was, not only because I picked up and recognized his emotions, but also because I could already feel his smug and pompous attitude.

"Does he know?" I asked not moving from the place I stood.

"Why else would he panic like he did?" Erik asked simply.

I paused for a moment contemplating his words. I decided to as the questions that I wanted instead. "You know I didn't buy that bullshit you were force feeding down those people's throats, right?" I asked changing the subject and turning to sees a half smile spread across his face.

"Believe it or not, I do have common sense" I added.

"Yet not much moral stability" He countered. "You've got a quick temper, yet with the right control you could be great. You know that?" I was about to correct him on the fact of my temper until I realized the potential good his inability to read people could bring me.

"So... are you just gonna let me go?" I asked after there was a long silence.

"Most likely" He replied, folding his arms, I noticed my ticket out of here in his left hand. "I don't think I have any real need for you. You'd just get in the way."

"Why's that?" I probed just for the sake of it.

"You remind me of myself" he said and I flinched. The truth was that it wasn't completely wrong. At least our wills were equal. Maybe not our views.

"And Peter?" I asked knowing full well that I was pushing my luck. I could read his motives, he just wanted to let me go knowing I would immediately head back to the institute and bring people with me to help everyone else get out. I decided to go along with his plot for the time being.

"Exceptions can be made" he said as he held up his left hand with keys in them. I watched him with scrutinizing eyes for any signs of falsehood in his demeanor, but this guy had a poker face that would put even Lady Gaga to shame.

I walked past him slowly, here was no way in hell that I'm trusting this guy that easily. I plucked the keys from his left hand as I passed him and almost paused in the doorway, but doing that might have required that I talk with him more and I wasn't quite up for that either.

"Well that went better than I had hoped it would" I said aloud to myself as I fanned through the keys.

Now I'm no locksmith, nor am I some super awesome rebel who know how to pick locks, so picking out the key I was looking for was no easy task. It was more like a game of chance.

I had followed the only passageways that I was familiar with to get to my place in mind. I'm also pretty sure I took more than one wrong turn cause the whole trip that had initially taken two or three minuets had taken me a good six or seven. 

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I knew as soon as I stepped foot in the 'cell room' everyone would either have the expectation that I was going to hurt them or set them free. I also knew that if I tried to get anyone else out but Peter, I would get the equivalent of some mer-person at my throat with a trident telling me "only one" and to which I would reply: "but they're my friends too." Alas, there would be no shark headed Bulgarian there to scare them off and I would have no choice but to let down the people that had looked up to me only a few days ago.