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She was wearing all black as she jumped the fence. She had her scent masked and there wasn't a breeze blowing to undermine her planning. If the X-Men caught her, her life would be forfeit, her employer would see to that.YOU DON'T CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY written by Echo
She stayed as close to the trees as possible, dodging through, over, and under the bushes, towards her destination. As soon as she was in the tree she had pre-selected, she set up her equipment and began to wait.
It would have been easyer to wait until he had returned to the other school, she could have killed him in his sleep. Somehow this was more challenging. The thrill of the danger she was in and how unsuspecting her victim was. Not to mentiont the fact that the sooner she got the job done, the sooner she could re-pay her debts and take off for the Bahama's, or Europe. The thought of getting out of the rut of her life was all that kept her going.
After ten minutes, the excitement began. In a small clearing the six students were branching off in different directions from the clearing along with the teachers.
Quickly she swung the rifle to her shoulders but Banshee was out of site. She got a good look at the students though. The blond was a metamorph called Husk. The Brit that she was quietly stalking was Chamber. The two kids she could barely see were Synch and Jubilee and the tall girl and the kid with the gray skin were M and Skin. Still no sign of the teacher's though.
She watched the as Skin was knocked on his but and then the teachers came into view. The exchange between them made Echo smile. The Frost woman had caught him completely by surprise. Maybe she could use that to her advantage. Add a little excitement to this game.
As the girls walked to the house she pulled out her image inducer and flipped through the settings. When she found the one she wanted she did a quick change.
As she watched Banshee began walking towards her position. She quickly jumped down from the tree and assumed a casual pose as she waited for him to see her.
The shadow that Banshee went searching for materialized in front of him. He was surprised by what he saw. "Theresa?"
"'Lo, da!" He came over and gave his daughter a hug.
"What are ye doin' here? Where's the rest of X-Force? Why don't you come up to the house and see the others?"
"No, da," she gave him a sweet smile. "I have surprise for ye!"
If he hadn't looked at her eyes just then, he'd be dead. The eyes were not the crystal green of his daughter but a deep purple. Almost black. He gave her a smile and then quickly grabbed her arm and flipped her over on her back, pinning her and breaking her image inducer in the process.
He stared at the girl before him. not what he had expected. The eyes were indeed purple but it was the entire eye, not jusst her iris's. Her hair was a mix of blue, green, and purple. She had green boomerang-shaped tatoos that outlined and accentuated her eyes. She was a strong fighter and was able to get loose by surprising him with a sonic scream of her own.
He flew back onto the ground and turned to look at her as she aimed her gun at his head. "I was hoping to do this quickly with a little fun, da'." She spode in a perfect Irish accent but it changed when she turned the safety off. "But I guess beggars can't be choosers."
In a move that surprised everyone, even Banshee, Synch and Angelo apeared. Synch sent a length of skin out around her ankles while Skin shoved her over with his own skin. Chamber sent a small pulse of psionic energy out that knocked her unconscious. Jono helped his teacher up as Angelo and Everett tied up their prisoner with extra skin.
"Who is she Mr. Cassidy?"
"I don't know lad, she didn't say."
They gathered her up and banshee flew the girl and Skin while Synch flew Jono, towards the mansion for the X-Men to question.
As Echo drifted in and out of consiousness she was aware of the fact that she had been captured. She gave herself two weeks before her boss decided to hire someone to knock her off.
Echo gained consciousness at the top of the stairs. She began to kick and struggle but Angelo just pulled his skin tighter.
Gambit watched the kicking girl come upstairs, from the shadows. He recognized her imediately and followed the group into the office. They set the girl in a chair across from the desk. Storm stared at the girl with danger and anger in her eyes.
"We don't think highly of people who invade our home. We've called S.H.I.E.L.D. and they will be by to pick you up." Storm came around to lean against the desk, still staring at the girl. "If you tell us what we want to know, perhaps you won't have to go with S.H.I.E.L.D."
The girl sat in silence, legs and arms crossed, staring at the picture of Xavier on the far wall. Storm interpreted her silence as agreement.
"What's your name?"
Silence.
"SHIELD prisoners have a way of disapearing if they're a danger to the goverment," Logan suplied gruffly.
She still sat staring at the picture.
Storm sighed and then noticed the large group in the office. All the X-Men and Generation X. She looked pointedly at Sean and then waved in the direction of Generation X. "Get them out of here pleas. Rogue, Marrow, Peter, and Emma please go with them and run them through some drills. We will join you in a moment."
Once they had left she looked back at the girl. "Kindly answer our questions."
"Echo," she said at last. "My names Echo."
Storm nodded. "That's a start. Now why don't you tell us why you tried to kill Banshee!"
Echo didn't even flinch at the tone in Storm's voice. Instead she gave her answer quite candidly. "If I told you, i'd have to kill you."
Gambit came into the light just then to restrain Storm and caught Echo's eye. At that moment she showed real fear. She looked at Xaviers picture again, keeping Gambit in the corner of her eye.
He whispered something in Storm's ear that calmed her down. She imediately walked to the door were the remaining adults, Kurt, Logan, Sean, Orora, and Remy, held a quick, whispered confrence.
Echo heard the door open and people leave. The door closed again. She could hear deep breathing and turned to see who had stayed, praying it wasn't him. She met his red eyes and a shiver went through her body. He smiled but didn't come towards her. She turned quickly around and tried to maintain her beathing.
"Echo, huh? Who calls you that?"
"Go away."
"Can't petite. I told dem I could get some answers out 'a you."
"Too bad, you lied. I'm sure they're getting sick of your lies though. Of course they're probably used to them too." He reacted so fast to her statement that she didn't have time to form a defense.
His slap jarred her so much that she lost her balance and fell, with the chair crashing down on her. She tried to jump up and form a defense for the next attack, but he grabbed her hair and hauled her to her feet.
"Dat's 'nough outa you! I've made up for my mistakes. I'm tryin' to do good and start over, but havin' my niece arrested by SHIELD for tryin' to kill a teamate doesn't help!"
He let go of her hair and shoved her to the floor. He sat on the edge of the desk and stared at her as she got to her feet.
"Why did you try to kill Banshee?"
She hesitated for only a second, "I was hired to kill him, and make sure that it was known who had killed him, but not who hired me. Throw the blame on someone else instead of my boss. Plus it would boost my rep."
"Who hired you?"
"I don't know."
This time she blocked the slap to her face but let the punch to her stomach go unchecked.
"Who hired you"
She was on her hands and knees gasping for breath. "I can't tell you."
He kicked out with his foor and made contact with her ribs.
"Who hired you?"
"I can't tell you!" She stared at him defiently. She was holding her ribs and bleeding out the side of her mouth.
He would have hit her again when he realized how hypocritical he was being. How many times had he been captured on a freelance job? Twice? Sure it hadn't been murder but his captors had beat him unconsious for not giving up the name of his employer. When he had escaped his employer found out and had hired goons try to kill him for the simple fact that he had been caught.
Echo was out of the money she would have made with Banshee's death. That was punishment enough.
He let her get to her feet and get her stability back by leaning against the table.
"I'm sorry." He stared at her, seeking forgiveness.
"She laughed scornfully, trying to hold back tears of pain. "Some family reuinion."
He grinned, "no less than a T'ieve would get."
She stopped laughing and stared at the floor. "I'm not a member of that cursed society. My mother made sure of that when she left my father. All of us might be dead instead of just him."
"How did you hear about his death?"
She stared out the window and then at him. "I have contacts, friends, that look out for my family. I was still in Madripoor when I heard. It's one of the main reasons I came back. To make sure mom was OK."
"She was looking for me a while back. Tried to find me t'rough da T'ieves guild. Don't suppose you'd know why?"
"She was looking for me, why else?"
"How long have you been gone?" He asked softly.
"Four years. I'm sure she thinks I'm dead by now. I was always more dad's daughter than hers." She grinned slyly at her uncle. "So... can you just let me go now? I'll stay out of trouble and write my mom. It's hard to do that in a SHIELD prison."
"You know I can't do that Jade. You did try to kill a teammate of mine."
"Ya, you mentioned that," she mumbled. "It's Archer now, by the way. Archer Beaule. Jade Remy Le'Beau is wanted by the feds in sixteen states. Archer Donna Beaule is only wanted in three."
He whistled softly. "Sixteen? Quite a reputation you've developed. Archer Donna Beaule?"
"Well Beaule's just Le'Beau switched around, Donna makes me remember Bella Donna. I know what she tried to do to you, but she was always wonderful to me, and Archer makes me think of Paul, so I use that."
"Dat makes sense. You miss your brother huh?"
"More than mom. I'm only sorry about one thing though."
"What's that?"
"That this doesn't upset me at all." Without warning a huge gust of wind pinned Gambit to the wall. A few convenient placed kicks rendered him unable to stand or even fight back. She grinned as she placed a well executed punch to his jaw.
"Sorry, Uncle, but I never really liked being named after you, or even you, for that matter. I can't be hauled off by SHIELD either when I still have Banshee's head to collect. Tell him to watch his back. Next time I'll be better prepared."
She was out the window and airborn on a gust of wind. Fifteen minutes later Storm found him still unconsious on the floor and their prisoner long gone.
