Chapter Text
Lorna is using her powers to move cars out of the way of the path of the growing lava trails, while shouting in her earpiece: “Val! Where are the other heroes? Civilians are panicking too much, Forge just had to save someone who was pushed by another off their rooftop... No, I don’t know why! Fear of over-crowding, maybe? Where are the Avengers, I am the only one whose powers can offer direct protection against the rising heat. No offense to Forge, but I do not trust his tech to save my brother and Guido long-term!”
The team is here because Mount Amukta decided to have a particularly bad eruption in Alaska, and X-Factor was called to help with the search and rescue.
They arrived quickly after the explosion calmed, but there is so much damage already, and, as the leader of X-Factor looks around, she can see so many people that are about to die if she doesn’t help.
Suddenly, her boss contacts her with more bad news as Polaris twists a few streetlights into a set of staircases to reach the roof of a sturdy-looking building. They will still get fried by the temperature if there aren't more helicopters allowing them to escape. She can see the rest of the team is also receiving the news in the way most of them still for a short instant before throwing themselves into the fray with even more despair.
As she gets close to a pile of Jamie dupes using themselves as human ladders, she tells Cooper to “Get me a biologist. I’m a doctor, but my expertise is in geophysics, and what I know tells me that no lifeforms can survive in lava for more than a few minutes. If these forms you detect are scientists from AIM, Hydra or whoever, I can deal with it, but I need someone called just in case we are talking about some weird creature like the mole people.”
Frustratingly, the psychologist seems to be confused as to where she is supposed to find one. “You are one of the leading agents on mutant-dom in the U.S. Gov, Valérie. What do you mean you don’t have biologists around? Asks for McCoy of the Avengers at worst, I think that’s part of his skill-tree. Or maybe Xavier? I mean, anyone who is supposed to know their genetics is at least capable in biology, my god, how did you get the job.. Did you warn Worthington? The X-men might be of help here, they’ve got a weather goddess and we don’t, all that I am saying..”
Their human liaison with the shadowy overlord of the US bureaucracy is throwing up her OWN storm, but that’s what is happening since that mess with the sentinels and Operation: Zero Tolerance.
Lorna turns towards her teammate. “Madrox, I’m gonna need a dupe to do some exploration!”
“You sure…” “... You can protect me?” Oh great, it’s a fearful dupe. She KNOWS they are often based on subconscious thoughts, and she doesn’t blame any of the Jamies to be scared, but she needs someone who can hold it together when interacting with potentially hostile unknowns.
“Electromagnetism bubble.” Three duplicates speak as one. “Sounds like...” “...bad comic ...” “... book science!!”
“We live in a world where Reed Richards can create portable black holes and threaten planet-eating alien giants, Jamie. With my PhD, presume I can pull off anything if I can even remotely justify it with electromagnetism. My father can do mind control and twist the planet’s rotation, we’ll be fine, somehow...”
Soon enough, they take flight, Lorna using her mastery over magnetism to quickly move people with a bench turned into a claw machine, or moving a truck out of the dead end the panicked driver took. “They created a whole death trap by all taking their vehicle to escape. Lava isn’t that fast depending on its consistency and the steepness..” “Lorna, I love you, and it’s all very interesting, but I lived in a barn. Doesn’t mean I know the growth rate of plants or how to raise livestock. Don’t expect people who live near a volcano to react with a perfect scientific reaction when their houses are about to be destroyed and they need to evacuate for their lives with what valuables they can.”
“Yeah, yeah, I- HERE!” She points to a black shape that is “swimming” in a deep flow near them. As Lorna lowers herself and the dupe to observe more the semi-aquatic(?) shape she can detect, the creature(?) reaches a point where the lava isn’t deep enough for them to navigate. Two six-fingered hands made of something that mimics light human skin but Lorna can tell is rock-based somehow come out first, and the two governmental-sponsored superheroes see that the lava isn’t about to stick to it and drops to the ground like pure liquid water. Pushing itself, the creature’s upper body comes out, and it is..
So human-like, even if it isn’t. He has something the color of light orange, almost blond, growing out of his head. It looks more like a plant growing on a rock than actual body hair. His eyes are likely vestigial, the way it doesn’t seem affected by the brightness. He is still looking in their general direction. They are extremely pale, and the iris is too large for a human eye. His sclera is a bit reddish, but it might just be the reflection of all the lava around. As Lorna almost touches the ground, she can tell what passed for “body hair” from afar is blue-green dots spreading all around. Lorna gasps as she recognizes it.
“His skin is made of something similar to syenite, a type of volcanic rock.” She declares, awed.
Jamie has a nervous laugh. “Great, so you DO have some knowledge as to how it works. Lorna, that is a lava merman. A Lavman? Laverman? A Merrockman?”
Utterly hideous naming convention from the man who picked “multiple man” as a superhero name aside, the creature IS very similar to mythical mermaids. For, while his upper body is humanoid, and quite ripped as that, Lorna looks appreciatively-
-If this is mimicry, how did their species managed to know that abdominals and large pecs are a form of strength for humans and manage to carve their body in a way that seems natural, and if this natural evolution, does that mean it is actually a THIN layer of rocks over muscle tissues? Fascinating concepts all around.
Does the presence of an outer protective shell means these are actually closer to insects or arthropods rather than mammals, or is the last common ancestor with any known species so far away it is useless to think about. As no legend speaks of such a creature as far as Lorna is aware, could this actually be a species that comes from an alternate dimension? Aliens that caused the eruption when they (crash-)landed in what they detected was similar to their homeworld habitat?(?)?
And she went on a tangent-
-But the lower body? Mermaid tail, or something similar. A bit rugged at the sides, Lorna thinks she saw on a nature documentary it is called a notched tail for whales. There is some kind of curve that seems to be a continuation of the vertebra? While there ARE darker spots around the era where a human’s hips would be and some reddish zone with the dark spots (also possible with syenite), there isn’t a clear difference in texture like people represent a mermaid’s scales. Same rock skin everywhere, the weird plant-like yellow-orange growth is present on its sides, creating something that is vaguely reminiscent of fins, as it was curved by the “current”. Now that she looks about it, his “hair” is also quite messy.
It is looking as awed as they are, his mouth hanging open. He has sharp but very small teeth, Lorna wonders what it might even be eating. She moves her hand, trying to see gills, but she doesn’t see it. On the contrary, there is a weird membrane over his ears, and his mouth is producing a similar liquid that drips to the floor, but seems to be floating on the lava for a few seconds before dissolving. Is its species producing a kind of fantastical hermetic liquid that protects them from absorbing lava while they dip underwater, and is easily removable, if not going away automatically, once they reach the surface so that they can breathe?
If so, this is something scientific might find interesting use for, or at least use as a basis for great achievements. If this wasn’t a crisis situation, Lorna would be dropping everything to study this, even if she herself admitted biology isn’t her field of expertise. There would be need for cross-expertise given his odd skin anyway, her mind betrays her distractedly.
“Hum, hye? Hello? Do you speak English?” She asks, and she sees the merman blinking in confusion. Twice. With two different eyelids. There is apparently a dark grey membrane hiding under that rock, and it blinks from the sides rather than up and down. Also, aren't there actually muscles ONLY for the upper eyelid for humans? might explain why his eyes seem a bit sunken inside of his skull.
He rubs his protection away from his ears. Okay, so definitively something to stop the lava from going in the squishy parts. She puts a hand on herself. “Lorna” and puts it on the dupe. “Jamie.” She hopes he gets what she means. She does have some hope when he puts one of his hands where his heart would be, if it were human. What comes out of his mouth comes off like a rumble. There might be more vocal cords than in a human body. “RAVOK.”
As he moves a bit, Lorna takes a bit downstairs. It seems rather smooth, but she can’t presume creatures in lava have the same gender morphism as humans, even if they seem to at least resemble them a bit. Also, there seems to be a weird zone over there, so maybe he has a retractable penis like a duck? Just wondering about it is taking away any sexy dream about sexy mermen. Lavemen. oh god, what are they gonna be named by humans?
He holds a hand towards her, but unfortunately, her magnetic field seems to zap him a bit.
The creature backs away, but it thankfully seems more surprised than scared. or maybe he was and it just didn’t show because it immediately backs away into the lava and swims away.
“Do we follow him?” Jamie asks. Lorna shakes her head negatively. “Doesn’t seem like it was malicious. Even if he and his race caused this voluntarily, it/he seemed surprised to see us. We should focus on saving the citizens, if his kind is like him/it, they won’t be an active threat. We will have to wait on Cooper’s approval to see if we stay afterwards to deal with them.”
Inside, Lorna hopes they will, but she doesn’t dare to express her hopes up. Jamie, of course, doesn’t know how or when to shut up, no matter the persona. “Well, I hope Val says yes. He looked smitten. I think you can try to argue you will be a good presence during the diplomacy as someone who already started a connection.”
She blushes. “Jamie, shut up."