You Don't Want This Kind of Bad, Sugar.

[un_gloved]

Rogue had been having fun. Rictor had been far too easy- not to mention wholly enjoyable- and gotten the know it all out of the way, not that she had a chance. Chaos gave the little bit trouble? Rogue was all chaos.

Deep down.

It felt good to be out.

She was sitting on the rail of the Brooklyn Bridge, enjoying the breeze and imagining the possibilities of where the evening could go. Where life could go. With her prime unconscious for who knew how long, things were looking decidedly up, and she had a world of scores to settle. Brooklyn looked nice from across the river, and the seaport was quiet, only diners and the tourists drifting away from the mall. Westchester wasn't far. Neither was S.H.I.E.L.D., apparently, and there were some people over that way who needed badly to die.

"God as mah witness," she purred to the evening, and stood in preparation to fly.

Comments

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"There's just so many of ya'll," she said, lifting her hands in a shrug, "what is a girl to do? Well, I guess I can always go back to th'old adages my momma used to tell me. If you can't beat 'em," and her shape rippled into just one more replica of Jamie Madrox, and he grinned, "join 'em." She swooped down into the middle of the remaining dupes, touched ground, and walked further into the thick of them. She grabbed two by the backs of their coats and threw them a very very very long way down the bridge.

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

He could hear the thrown dupes yelling but he blocked it out. He blocked out their pain, their fear, and concentrated at the task at hand. Still absorbing the dupes from her last punch, he walked towards her.

Towards me.

He imagined it probably looked pretty cool from far away and for a brief moment, he understood why people might eagerly snatch up his life off of comic book shelves. Things like this didn't happen to normal people. Things like this were astonishing. Uncanny.

She didn't have a scratch on her. Jamie was bleeding like it was going out of style, his jaw turning a rather fetching shade of purple.

"Well, aren't we handsome?" he said with a mirthless grin. He leaned against a car for support and it was just his luck that whatever moron owned the thing had set their alarm before leaving.

I officially hate today.

He winced slightly as he pulled away his hand, swaying slightly on spot before he steadied.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

She stopped, staring him down with one of Jamie's own casual, charming expressions.

"Oh, Madrox. Your plan was to bleed on me?" She chuckled with his voice, and changed back, uniform two pieces, green, hooded, her original one.

"When Ah've got this?" she said, holding up one hand, raising off the ground, as a wind picked up. It tugged purposefully and unkindly at Jamie's jacket, and at his dupes, and stirred the water underneath them. Lightning ripped silently across the sky. She rose up.

"Why d'you even wanna stop me, Madrox? I'm gonna tear this place apart. 'n there won't be a S.H.I.E.L.D. left to carry that registration act through, or any turncoat sons of bitches to enforce it. Eggs. Omelets. You know how it goes."

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

Storm. Great.

Dust and debris flew around the Jamies with an alarming velocity and he brought his arms up to shield his eyes. It was instinctive and his dupes followed suit, but Jamie Prime forced them down. Damn, if he was going to die there cowering like a little boy.

"What, don't you have any powers of your own?" he yelled. "Or are you just going to keep using shit you've stolen over the years?"

Are you fucking nuts? Don't egg her on!

And then, he laughed. He laughed long and loud as if that was just the funniest thing he'd ever heard.

"What you think the other side's just going to watch while you slaughter them?" He had his hands on his hips, apparently oblivious to the wind and the debris now. Hell, he could've been in a bar the way he was standing. "Highly unlikely."

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

Rogue's eyes flashed white and she flung an arm out to the side knocking a number of unfortunate dupes over the edge of the bridge like they were so much paper. Then she was forward like a shot, grabbing the Jamie by the front of his coat and hauling him up-

and stopped short.

"Everyone they could send after me I've got matched, shugah. With th'added perk of not givin' a damn who lives," her gaze flickered over his face.

"'n who doesn't." Her hair turned red and freckled broke out across her rapidly lightening skin until Terry was smiling at him. Her body stayed the same. It was actually a pretty neat trick. "Can you say the same?" she asked as she shifted into Monet.

"You've got enough of the dark in you to murder a bunch of Hydra agents," and Rictor's face quirked a little smile at him that was pitying and cold, "so long as it's inadvertently, while you self flagellate yourself over your boyhood anguish." She shifted in Layla.

"But what about people with faces your recognize and names you know?"

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

One good thing about dupes is that I have a low-level pyschic link with them. I can sense them when they're close, even direct them a little when they want to cooperate. This hasn't been all that often, lately. But, there's something that unifies me when I about to die. We like working together then.

His feet dangled off the ground and he watched with steely resolve as her face shifted. Terry. Monet. Rictor. Layla. With Rahne and Guido it'd be the full set.

"You have no idea what I'm capable of, sugar," he replied. "But I think you're about to find out."

During her monologue - Which is something you should never do as a villain. - Jamie had willed a dupe to walk up behind her. He figured she'd be distracted enough by her little show that his possibly - Okay, admittedly - suicidal idea could work. And so, with no warning, the dupe slapped his bare hands to Rogue's face.

And once he held on, he didn't let go until he was dead.

I don't like sending dupes to their death, but sometimes, it's necessary.

Thank you.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"Really?" she asked, keeping the Layla facade. "You gonna impress me MadroAaaAAAH!" She threw him, clothing and face reverting, eyes going colorless and skin crackling, energy lancing across her skin.

Usually, it would take touching the Silver Surfer or Thor to do that. But when someone held on, when someone willingly gave it all-

Well, she'd never experienced that before. It was too much. She threw the dupe away as he died, flying erratically up, then stumbling back down. She blurred. Her foot touched the pavement and three dupes appeared. They each took one step, each grasping their heads, and more appeared. It took practically nothing.

She was multiplying exponentially. And when the multiplying stopped, when more than fifty of the young mutant called Rogue stood reeling on the bridge, they looked up. Not together. Not in unison. But with varying degrees of rage anger and venom on their faces.

It was not a particularly calming image to be faced with.

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

Jamie was once again flying through the air. The novelty was wearing off by now.

He landed hard, dupes erupting from him like the alien in Species, and he stood up.

He was so elated by the fact that his plan had worked that the thought that he now had to face an army of Rogues didn't really phase him all that much. He imagined this feeling would disappear shortly so he thought he'd enjoy it while it lasted.

Time to get to work.

Immediately, he started to create more dupes. He stomped, he tapped, he slapped, anything bit of kinetic energy he could quickly create to get more dupes out of him. He was better at this than her and he worked like a well-oiled machine.

He out-numbered the Rogues in record-time.

Then, he arranged himself in a formation not dissimilar to something the Spartans might've cooked up, Prime bringing up the rear.

I'm an overwhelmer. That's what I told her a month ago. Time to prove it.

With identical faces set in resolved expressions, the Madri marched forward, hoping to whatever X-Deity that the plan would work.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

The Rogue army was not in the least bit interested in being a cohesive unit. The problem there was you had more than half a hundred young women with super strength and a bad attitude lashing out in every direction completely uncaring of how much damage they caused, and to who. The front line of Jamie's dupes took some monstrously hard hits. Skull shattering ones. Anyone not fighting for their life in the moment might have been able to take a minute to consider the kind of damage their originator could do if she let herself.

Certainly she did. It kept her struggling in her own mind half the time. But that wasn't the issue on hand. The issue on hand was that the darkest part of her had fractioned itself off and killing people- or a person, depending on one's point of view- left and right.

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

He felt each death just like he'd always felt each death. The first few caused him to wince, the second wave to clutch at his chest, by the time the third wave rolled around, Jamie collapsed. Pieces of him were dying and he didn't even know which ones.

Some plan, Madrox.

Tears in his eyes, Jamie looked up at the chaos. Dupes were flying left and right, some hitting the ground dead while others merely fell off the bridge.

I'm going to die.

The thought was sobering to say the least. Blindly he reached out and began to absorb the hurt and still fighting dupes. Because if he was going to die? He only wanted to do it once.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

In the center of the group of Rogue duplicates, a fight had broken out. This didn't necessarily lessen the frequency with which damage was being dealt out to Jamie, but it caused a ripple. More Rogues were created, but a few disappeared, because if there was one person she genuinely hated more than any other in the world, it was herself.

If you put enough of her in a room together with disparate views of the world, it was only a matter of time. Or on a bridge, of course.

Which only scattered the fight more. Now she was fighting two enemies, and most of her couldn't decide which one took priority.

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

He managed to stand up. This in itself was noteworthy as he felt like every bone in his body had been broken.

Which they had. There were a lot of broken bones. However, it was the saving grace of his power that he only had the sensation of them being broken. That said, it didn't make himself feel much better. The only positive thing that had happened so far was that Rogue had began to fight herself.

He knew that feeling too.

Prime took shelter behind a car, some distance away from the foray. He needed to catch his breath. He needed to think. He needed to wipe the blood from his eyes. He needed to re-group. Literally.

But most importantly he needed a plan and he needed one fast.

There's still a dozen dupes out there, acting as little more than cannon fodder. I'm too weak to absorb them remotely. I'm going to need contact. Because if anymore of them die, I might just pass out right here and now.

As he stood from his hiding place, a dupe flew overhead and landed hard on the pavement. Quickly, Prime dashed to where he and the resultant dupes had landed. None of them put up a fight.

One down, eleven to go.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

The central Rogue dupe, the one who had started the fight, caught one of hers by the throat and reabsorbed her, then staggered with the additional persona. She flew forward, catching two more who were fighting each other, ignoring the Multiple Man, and reabsorbed them, as well. It was difficult, and it kept putting her off balance, but she still wasn't bleeding, compared to pretty much everyone else in the vicinity. One of her dupes had just tackled a Madrox and sent the two tumbling. That one could stay.

She started forward at a glide, dodging the fights that were breaking out still between dupes who kept punching each other and making more dupes who jumped into the fray. Occasionally, she reached out and wrestled one back, but her goal was straightforward, and she kept on back toward the cars where she was pretty sure Prime had run to.

Jamie Prime had to go down for the count.

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

Prime for his part was doing a good job at rounding up his own dupes. It may have involved crawling underneath trucks and grabbing them by the ankle, but it accomplished the task at hand. There were only a few stragglers left, still fighting the Rogue dupes as if they weren't going to die any second. Of them he was proud.

Which was why he wasn't going to let them killed.

He climbed over the cars and debris to get close enough to them and he noticed that they were working as a team. The Rogues were unfocused and fighting amongst themselves. The Madri weren't and it was probably the only reason they were still alive. That's when he realized that he couldn't get close enough for contact without being killed himself. Adding a new element to that situation would disturb what little order he had created. He'd have to do it remotely.

Fuck.

He extended his hands in front of him and willed them back. For a second nothing happened and he panicked. Something needed to happen. He concentrated again, pushing through the pain and the madness, and just hoped.

And the first dupe came back and then the second and the third and the dupes they had all created. There was only one dupe he couldn't account for now but he wasn't on the bridge.

Maybe he's gone to get help.

Jamie was alone. Bleeding. Possibly dying.

But he wasn't going to give up.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

Rogue lashed out with one hand, cracking one of her own dupes so hard across the jaw that she collapsed into a motionless heap. She grimaced, eyes darkening, as she reached out and absorbed her. That left five, and the four of them looked much the worse for wear. The central dupe, the originator, she looked fine. Haggard and pissed off, but comparatively fine. Her eyes were fixed on Jamie like a laser.

"And that's all you've got," she said, sounding exceptionally unstable. "That's all you can do."

The implication was, it wasn't enough.

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

Five, angry Rogues to his one resolved, and dying where he stood Jamie Madrox.

This can't be happening.

The bridge around them was in ruins and the corpses of the dead dupes stared blankly at the night sky. The acrid smell of burnt rubber invaded his nostrils, the metallic taste of blood tainted his tongue.

He stood opposite her, opposite them perfectly alone. Creating more dupes was preventing the inevitable.

Jamie Madrox was going to die.

This can't be happening.

He stared at the central dupe.

This can't be happening.

And then his eyes widened slightly.

No, this can't be happening. I should already be dead. Why am I not dead?

How am I not dead?

"No," he said, shaking his head. His tone was not of a man who was about to die. Surprisingly, he sounded elated. A grin stretched across his face and with the blood and the bruises he looked rather insane. "No, it isn't."

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

Evil Rogue's (to go with a moniker) eyes narrowed. The four behind her rose similarly above the pavement, clearly uneasy with each other, but much more dedicated to the eradication of Jamie Madrox from the planet.

She burst forward to grab the front of his shirt with one hand and jerk him up, stopping just short of her nose brushing his.

"I'm gonna drain you til there ain't nothin' left," she murmured, offering a sweet little smile, watching him through her lashes.

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

"No," he said, still grinning. Still slightly crazy. "No, you aren't."

He grabbed onto her shoulders. "You know why?"

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

She looked taken aback and half outraged. She didn't actually speak (and the other dupes stopped short as well, bristling, hands curling into fists), but she gave the impression of saying:

"?!"

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

"Because this isn't happening," he said in a low voice "This isn't the real world. It's a construct. A trick. I should be dead right now and I'm not. And if this isn't real? If this is all in my head? That means I can bend the rules." His grin returned. "That means I can beat you."

His grip on her shoulders tightened.

"You want my powers? You wanna suck me dry? Then you get the whole deal. You get the superpowers. You get the army." Beat. "And you get the itty bitty living space."

Still squeezing her shoulders Jamie closed his eyes and did a remarkable thing: he started to absorb Rogue.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

The other four made an honest to God break for it and didn't get very far. She gave a startled his, lifting her hands to push away from him, but they dissolved.

"No," she said, "no, no, no you can't do that you can't do this."

But he could, apparently.

A few miles away, a young woman broke into cold sweats, and woke up yelling.

[jamesmadrox.livejournal.com]

"I'd make an allusion to the Matrix," he said, breathing heavily as she disappeared into him. "But that's after your time, sugar."

It was a head-rush like he'd never experienced before. He could feel the Rogue - literally rogue in this case - personality claw at him from the inside. She was stronger than the S.H.I.E.L.D. dupe, stronger than any dupe he'd reabsorbed before, but that was to be expected.

She was Rogue. Her very name implied something extraordinary. Something unexpected.

I'm the fly in the ointment. The spanner in the works. I'm unpredictable.

He began to shake uncontrollably and he leaned against a car for support, slowly sliding down to the ground, utterly thankful that he hadn't simply collapsed. Hadn't created another dupe. Hadn't created another disaster.

"I'm the X-Factor," he said softly.

And then, he fell unconscious, armageddon lying in his wake.

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

Layla clambered over a severely messed up SUV, and walked around the gaping, crumbling hole in the middle of the Brooklyn bridge until she was kneeling beside Jamie, watching him with a terse expression.

"Idiot," she said quietly, then stood and turned.

"Over this way, mallrat!"