Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 11: Righteous Fury

It didn't take long for the Avengers to hear about what had happened with Sinister — if for no other reason than that they needed to know why Clint and K hadn't come back to the Tower. And to say that Steve was furious was putting it mildly.

He wasted no time that afternoon getting down to the institute. He knew he wasn't going to get much in the way of answers from Logan — not just because the man was notorious for giving briefings that barely qualified as a paragraph but because he'd put himself on the line as well and was likely taking the time to heal. So instead, Steve went to Scott. After all, the man had been dealing with Sinister since he was a kid, if Steve understood Logan correctly.

One of the students — Jubilee — answered the door, and when Steve asked for Scott, she directed him to the living room. "If you're here for baby snuggles, Rachel's crawling and attaching to anyone she can reach, so..."

Steve almost smirked at that. "Good to know," he said.

Scott stood up from the couch where he had been talking with his wife and daughter when Steve entered the room — something Steve thought might not be entirely conscious — and then crossed the room to greet him. "What can I do for you?" he asked — obviously not expecting to have Captain America in his home.

"I need you to help me coordinate our teams to go after this Sinister... person," Steve said. He wasn't going to mince words about it, and he knew from the past few times he'd worked with Scott — on adoption papers and on setting up a better dialogue between their two teams — that Scott appreciated a more direct approach anyway.

Still, Scott looked stunned when he heard it -—even with the glasses hiding much of his expression. "Come again?"

"This mad scientist that kidnapped Clint and K — and your entire family not too long ago, as Clint tells me," Steve said. "You have to know that's not something the Avengers are willing to let slide. I know he's been going after your team, but that doesn't mean he's only your problem."

Scott looked stunned for a second longer before he nodded lightly. "Right," he said. "I agree — I mean, I don't think he's exclusively our problem, and of course we'd appreciate any help we can get. It's just..." He smirked and rubbed the back of his neck. "This is still going to take some getting used to. The idea of the Avengers stepping into stuff like this."

"I'm only sorry we didn't step in sooner," Steve told him frankly. "If this is the kind of thing your team has been fighting back this whole time, then we've misunderstood the scope of the issues you've been facing." He shook his head. "That might be on us. I always assumed your team was more about basic rights and keeping mutants like Magneto from turning the world against you — any more than they already are. I didn't realize the lengths some people are going to in order to destroy or change mutants."

"To be fair, not even other mutants know about Sinister unless they've dealt with him themselves. He's been able to operate under the radar for years now because he's so selective about the people he 'studies'," Scott said, his jaw tightening along with his fists at that last word.

"Still," Steve said. "I want to help. This guy should never be allowed to touch anyone ever again, especially not the next generation." As he spoke, he gestured to Rachel, who was giggling as she escaped her mother's lap and tried to crawl toward the two men as they talked.

Scott glanced over his shoulder to the intrepid little girl and then nodded. "Yeah. I know."

"It's worse when it's personal, isn't it?" Steve asked gently.

For just an instant, Steve could see a muscle working in Scott's jaw as he thought of everything he'd been through with Sinister — and then Scott simply let out a breath and nodded. "It always is," he said and then turned his attention back to Steve. "The problem is: we don't know where to look," he admitted. "If we did, that's where we would be. But Sinister has the ability to leave his body; he has duplicates hidden away that he can pour his mind into. When K got off the examination table swinging, she killed that body — but he was already in another one, and we have no idea where that other body might have been."