(NYC) Family Reunion [Sins, Mercy]

[Mercy]

Mercy had thought that her neighborhood was as bad as it got. She'd never seen this part of New York. At least her housing was paid for by the government, and so it was kept up somewhat. The apartment complex on the address Deadpool had found for her was literally falling apart.

Mercy walked the rickety stairs to the second floor, and searched for numbers on the doors she passed. Some doors' numbers had long since fallen off, some hung upside down. Finally she found apartment 257, the seven half-fallen so that it lay on it's side.

She stood in front of it for a long moment, sucking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly in a failing attempt to calm her nerves. She again wished she hadn't worn her good clothes from DKNY, being where she was. But all of that was petty details now.

As she knocked on the door, she wildly tried to piece together everything that she had planned to say, that she had gone over and over again in her mind all the way there. It had flown out the window, and Mercy bit her lip as she listened for sounds of movement inside.

[sins]

Carter was just pulling two PopTarts from the toaster when he heard a knock on his door. Nodody's ever knocked on my door before...

That's because nobody loves you like we do, said Lust with a laugh.
Ignore it! I'm starving! cried Gluttony.
The door is way too far, just get the Poptarts, mumbled Sloth.

"Shuttup," Carter said aloud.

If he's black, you'd better bring us out, because you know what he'll want, said Wrath.

Carter, can't you at least but on some decent clothes? asked Pride.

Carter looked down at the dirty grey tee shirt and black sweatpants he was wearing and briefly thought about taking Pride's advice. He shook his head and continued towards the door. He undid the four locks, fumbling with the chain lock
The damn thing always gets stuck! Break it off!
but finally getting it free. He opened the door and peeked his head out.

Needless to say, he was surprised at what he found.

[Mercy]

Mercy stared at the man who answered the door for a moment before she drew a deep breath and spoke. "Carter Burke?"

She licked her lips, looking down at the ground before looking back up at him. She wore a hesitant, shy look. "Uh...My name is..." She nearly said Mercy, but remembered just in time what she had learned from the article about her supposed death. "Evelyn. I lost my memory about a year and a half ago, and...just recently a friend helped me to locate my family. You're...my only relative still alive..."

[sins]

Who cares?
Who cares is right! Take her to the bedroom, Carter.
Ha! She's not worth it.
Oh no, we could have some fun with her. Let me out!
Just slam the door in her face. Let's hope it breaks her nose!
Yes, then see what she has in her pockets. If there's nothing there, we can always just keep her.
Let's just hear what she has to say. Then maybe we'll do some of that.

For the first time in years, Carter heard none of them. He stared at the girl who claimed to be his sister and he saw it...it was Evie. Unbelievable.

The hair, the nose, the shape of her face...Just like mom's. Her eyes...Just like dad's. And mine.

Suddenly, he was very dizzy and took a few steps back, allowing the door to swing open all the way. He put a hand on the wall to steady himself, then looked back at here.

"How...how are you...Evie? How are you alive?"

[Mercy]

Mercy hadn't realized she was holding her breath, and she let it go in a strangled sob. Her mouth formed a smile as she started to cry, unable to take her eyes off of Carter. He looked a lot like the picture of her father she had seen. He had known her--their--father. He could tell her so much. Here was the key to her past that she had wanted for so long. Here was her past.

She covered her mouth as tears spilled onto her cheeks, shifted her weight from side to side, wanting to hug him but still unsure what would be appropriate. There was no preparation for this kind of meeting. "I--I, uh...I was kidnapped," she said, not wanting to turn the meeting dark but not knowing how to get around it. "The accident was a set-up."

She stepped toward him without knowing what she was doing, just reacting to pure emotions. She put her hands on his arms, her eyes searching his face, as if trying to memorize it. She then wrapped her arms around his neck and wrapped him in the tightest of hugs, as though if she didn't hold on tight enough he'd slip away again. "I thought I was alone. Oh, God, I never knew if I had anyone..."

[sins]

Carter hadn't been hugged in God, was it really over ten years? He had felt the touch of women, yes, and the duplicates knew that even more than he did. But hugged? Not in too long of a time.

"Evie..."

As he wrapped his arms around her as well, some of the most disturbing words the sins had ever said filled his head. He squinted his eyes and gritted his jaw, holding her even tighter.

No. You will not ruin this for me. Shuttup, all of you, or I'll kill myself tonight. I swear to God I will. And you'll all die with me. You will not ruin this for me.

And the voices, frightened by his threat, were completely silent for the first time in their existence.

Carter hugged his sister still, and let the tears fall from his eyes.

[Mercy]

In was minutes before Mercy composed herself enough to lift her head. She didn't move out of her brother's--her brother's--arms, but looked at him from close range. "I can't remember anything. You have to tell me everything you remember; mom, dad, Robert, Charlotte Kay, everyone." She rattled the names from the birth certificates, not knowing that most of her siblings had gone by nicknames - Rob, Charlotte, Ben. The names on paper were the only thing she knew about them.

She lapsed back into her disbelief, and she shook her head as though to clear her jumbled thoughts. "I can't believe we've been in the same city for the last year and a half and never knew it. I've been in Bushwick, maybe for longer than that." He would have known of Bushwick, one of the least safe and least clean neighborhoods in NYC. And yet she was wearing DKNY.

Suddenly, Mercy wondered if he was a mutant. Didn't it run in the family? If she'd gotten it, then maybe someone else in their family was a mutant. She hesitated, unsure whether or not she should ask--what if he really hated muties, and kicked her out? She couldn't afford to lose him.

[sins]

Carter felt the duplicates begging and pushing to be free of him. What would she think if he duplicated before her eyes? And worse, what would those monsters do to her? He couldn't stop them in the past, he doubted he could now...Oh, God, that time in the alley...

Lust laughed loudly. Best time of my life!
Second best for me, said Gluttony. Maybe third?

Shuttup! The previous threat he had made against them had lost its weight in the passing moment, and they were back with full strength.

"Evie," he said as he took her arm gently, "there's so many thing I would love to tell you. I want to talk to you...forever, God, I can't believe you're still alive." He smiled until Wrath said, Aaaw, ain't that sweet? The others laughed with him, and Carter's smile faded and his face hardened.

"But you can't be here right now."

[Mercy]

Mercy was relieved that her clones hadn't shown themselves. They would no doubt be enough to scare him away from her for good. She could faintly feel them in the back of her mind, and she could feel that they were nearly as overwhelmed as she was, to know that she had a family. They did care for her, and they had tried to protect her; but they also blamed her for what had happened to them.

"But you can't be here right now."

Mercy's smile faded slightly, as confusion flickered in her eyes. "Um...Uh, okay..." she said unsuredly. She nodded slowly, trying to understand what could be so important that he would need to reschedule a reunion with his own sister. "Um, actually, I don't really have anywhere to go, so...I could just hang out somewhere until you can meet up with me later..." She shifted her weight from one leg to the other and tugged at the sleeves of her shirt.

[sins]

Carter took a sidestep in between her and the door.

Now push her to the bed!
Or to the floor.
I love it on the floor.
You would.

"No, no...You stay here. If you need some place to stay...um...yeah."

What the HELL are you doing, Carter?
Don't give her anything?!?
This is our home!

Carter shook his head and put a hand to his temple. He took a step away from her. "I'm sorry, I...I have to go. But stay here. Please."

[Mercy]

Mercy walked into the apartment, looking around before she turned back to Carter. He was acting extremely weird...'He must be late for something,' she reasoned.

"Okay, sure. And thanks--" Mercy started, trying to be understanding. But that was when she looked to the side, and saw herself in the hallway. No, not herself. Her Sight.

Mercy tensed, and whipped her head back to Carter. Suddenly she wanted nothing more than for him to leave. If he saw her freakish clones now, he'd probably never want to see her again. She could only hope he didn't see her twin. "I'll stay here," she said hurriedly.

[sins]

"Okay, great!" Carter replied, still holding onto his fake smile. He backed slightly more out the door and then saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked only a little to his left, thinking it was just one of his neighbors, then did a double take.

"Holy shit!" he cried, jumping backwards. A girl stood staring at him, a girl who was unmistakable Evie - but with only eyes and no other features. Carter's heart began to race as he looked back and forth between the two versions of his sister.

"This...this isn't real," he said as he pushed his back against the door frame.

[Mercy]

Mercy’s face fell as her heart both dropped in despair and started to race at the same time. She rushed to explain, stepping toward him as he moved away. She grabbed the door and half-closed it, hoping to block her intruding Sense from his view. “No, listen, let me explain—“ she said pleadingly.

“I’m a mutant,” she said, knowing that with those three words she might have just ruined her chances with her last living relative. As if Mercy’s Sight hadn’t already done that. “And I…I have these clones. But I can’t control them—“

Mercy stopped as she realized that they could very well put Carter into an illusion at any second. She put all of her will behind the command that they not, and could only hope that she had some sort of power over them.

“They’re really hideous, I know, but I don’t think they’ll hurt you,” Mercy said, but in the next instant corrected herself. “I won’t let them hurt you."

'God, please, just don't walk out of my life.'

[sins]

Evie tried to calm Carter, but the panic button in his head had been pushed and his own personal demented SWAT team was on their way.

Carter's body tensed up and he hunched over as seven replicants appeared, surrounding him.

"Ho! Feels good to stetch my legs!"
"My legs aren't what I'm interested in stretching, Wrath."

"Oh god, I need a sandwich. Or a pie. Oooh, both!" Gluttony pushed into the apartment past Carter's sister and headed straight for the fridge, while Sloth just crossed his arms and sat on the floor, pouting.

Wrath and Lust lunged forward at Evie, while Envy and Pride held Carter's shoulders.

"No! You sick monsters!"
"Shhh, Carter, I'm sure they won't take too long."

[Mercy]

Suddenly there were eight Carters standing before her. She screamed out of pure shock, dodging back and covering her mouth. Her scream cut off shortly as it registered that he had the same power she had--a similar one, anyway. She looked at the eight in surprise, trying to determine which was Carter, or if they were all exactly like him anyway.

They didn't seem to be, as they spoke to each other, and though they shared the same voice, their tones were very different. What the two said to each other gave Mercy a feeling of unease, and she eyed them warily, shying away from Gluttony as he walked past.

Their intentions became clear as the two in front lunged for her, and she let out an ear-piercing scream and scrambled backwards, throwing her arms up to put up some kind of a fight. Terrified and bewildered, she called on the only people she knew that could or would protect her. They were already on their way.

Sight disappeared from her place in the hall and reappeared in front of Mercy. At that moment, the other four Senses appeared, creating a line of horribly disfigured young women to block the men from Mercy. Mercy could sense them conjuring up a terrible vision, equipped with the most disgusting sounds and smells imaginable, and for once she felt that they were right in doing so.

But as Mercy's legs hit the edge of a small, cheap coffee table, and she lost her balance and fell backwards with a cry, she and her Senses realized that their vision had no effect. Carter's clones wouldn't even have noticed that anything had been attempted.

[sins]

Lust and Wrath rushed forward, intent on taking their prize. They were undaunted when Evie created more versions of herself - they had seen this trick before, hell, they knew it inside and out. But as they readied themselves to plow through the ugly Evies, they found that they couldn't move.

"What the hell?"
"What did you do, bitch?"

Lust took a few steps back and tried again, but to no avail. Anytime either of them tried to harm the clones, their body simply wouldn't move.

"Help us out here, assholes!" Lust said as he turned to Pride and Envy. Pride let go of Carter and pointed a finger at Lust. "Shut your mouth, sicko, I'll do whatever I want."

Carter shook Envy's hand off his shoulder and stormed forward, pushing Lust and Wrath out of the doorway.

"Get away from her, you freaks!"

"Look who's talking," said Sloth from the floor. He had slumped over with his head resting sideways on his hand.

He turned and stared past the deformed versions of his beautiful sister, trying not to see them and only focus on her.

"Evie, I'm sorry. This is why I tried to leave!"

[Mercy]

Evie fell to the ground, her head hitting the wall behind her. Though it wasn't hard enough to hurt, still tears formed in her eyes. So her brother had a mutation like hers; and he also, like her, couldn't control them. As the clones argued, Mercy scrambled to sit up, and pushed herself back against the wall.

As she looked up, she blinked furiously to clear her eyes of the tears and see properly. The tears left her eyes and trailed down her cheeks, but she could see her brother clearly, standing on the other side of her clones as the multiple Carters argued with each other. Her clones couldn't affect his clones...And his clones couldn't touch hers? Unsure if his clones could touch her or not, she stood warily, her eyes locked onto her brother's as he apologized.

"It's okay," she said quietly. "It's not your fault." Then after a pause, she added, "I know what it's like to not have control." Though he'd been living with it for longer than she had, which was only a few days in which they'd showed themselves twice before, she had felt the fear that came with being unable to stop them from hurting someone.

But right then, her Senses did something that surprised her. Sight, who was in the middle and directly in front of Carter, stepped to the side. Her unblinking eyes never left his face, but she moved to give him a pathway to Evie. Once again, Mercy felt an echo of that caring from her Senses. They remembered everything that she didn't, and they weren't there to hurt her. They were as glad that she had been reunited with her brother - that something good had happened to her - as she was.

The Senses regarded Carter solemnly but without malice. Even those without eyes followed his movement with their heads, as though they could still see him. Those with mouths set them in a straight line. It was clear that while they didn't trust his clones, they trusted Carter, and in fact expected him to take up the brother role where Mercy had lost it when she was a child.

[sins]

Wrath crossed his arms over his chest and kicked the wall.

Lust turned his back on them and put his hands in his jean pockets.

Pride sneered at the two siblings, but kept his mouth shut.

Envy put a hand out to Carter as he crossed into the mess of ugly Evies, but could think of nothing to say.

Sloth started snoring on the floor of the hallway while Greed went though his pockets, finding nothing and frowning about it.

Gluttony walked out of the kitchen, his arms full of various meats, breads, and cheeses, and his mouth stuffed with food. "What's going on out here?"

"It's okay," she said quietly. "It's not your fault."

Carter bent over and extended a hand to Evie, helping her off the floor. He looked back over his shoulder at his own Sins and Evie's Senses and laughed a little.

"I guess we really are family, huh?"

[Mercy]

Mercy smiled at his attempt to break the tension, then broke into a laugh. She couldn't, however, ignore the fact that his clones were still in the room. At least her Senses didn't talk, didn't even seem to listen to their surroundings; his clones were liable to chime in at any time, and they were definently eavesdropping.

She turned to look at the seven Sins hesitantly. Her arm was against his; she was staying close for the protection. "Are they, uh...Are they always like that?" she asked under her voice, but not quietly enough for them not to hear. Her Senses were still between Evie and Carter, and Carter's Sins, facing away from the siblings and looking at nothing in particular.

"Was anyone else in our family a mutant?" she asked suddenly, turning her head to look up at him.

[sins]

"Are they, uh...Are they always like that?"

Carter looked over at his shoulder, where the Sins still fought. Now Wrath was pushing Envy in the chest. Good, I hope they knock each other out.

Carter looked back at Evie and raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, they're always like that. And worse." He swallowed, trying to push back a distant but still vivid memory.

"Was anyone else in our family a mutant?"

Carter shook his head. "No...well, I don't think so. You know...they're all gone. So we'll never know." He looked back over his shoulder again, at her Senses and his Sins. "Maybe it's better that we don't."