So, there'll probably be just one more chapter after this – I haven't managed to finish the story up yet, so I don't know for sure.
It should go up tomorrow… should, because after a day of preparing presentations and calculating concentrations and volumes and OD values my brain feels like nice squishy homogenous mush O.o
Anyway, let's get this party started.
Find My Way Back Home
Part III: Without your love
Breaking into the facility in Wales is significantly harder than crashing the labs in China and Bolivia was.
For one, this research base is located in a country where security is much more detailed, and where the researchers are actually hiding from the government, which makes this base much better hidden.
Also, it appears to be still in use, and those working there are actively trying to keep everyone away.
It makes Erik itch all the more to go in and mix things up a little.
He does, however, realize that he needs to do this properly if he does not want to needlessly endanger those following him.
Accepting that he knows way too little – not even being able to say where exactly the base is located – Erik decides to take things slowly, and do some proper planning for a change. And no matter that few people are easier to hide than many, he needs more mutants to help him if he wants to take on an active research facility equipped to deal with mutants.
"I know someone," Ink says when Erik explains. "I could ask."
"Please do. Mystique, Vanisher, Toad – you find the exact location, and scout it. When I return I want to know as much as possible, alright?"
All he receives is nods of agreement.
He has not only chosen a shapeshifter – who may turn into anyone – a teleporter – who may leave from anywhere – and someone with better instincts and stronger legs for this mission because of their duties. He has also chosen them because he knows they can do it, and they will. The labs are located somewhere underground beneath Cardiff, and finding them will be tricky enough. If anyone can manage to, it will be them.
Quill he makes responsible for training whoever they bring, working them into the group, and then he and Ink leave.
Returning to the US is dangerous, of course, and they go together so that they can protect each other with their powers should the need arise.
They cross the border via Mexico, without getting caught, and when Erik shows up at Pietro's place and asks the kid whether he wants to come along the boy is ecstatic. As long as his twin sister, Wanda, can come too he is in, and Erik gladly accepts another mutant – and one with such a great power at that.
Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch are part of their Brotherhood, then, and knowing Pietro Erik sends them ahead to Cardiff as he and Ink move on to a guy the tattooed young mutant knows. Shocker, it turns out, is able to paralyze others using shock bolts. Upon telling him of their plans he says he knows two more who might be interested in joining them, two who had to live underground for a very long time, chased away by those they once called family, and who are all too eager to get some revenge.
It is how Erik and Ink return to Cardiff with Shocker, Burner and Lorelei in tow almost five months after they left, and in the meantime the others actually managed to find the facility – along with a total of three ways to get in.
Taking another two weeks to make some proper plans Erik watches as his group knits itself together, and while he would give anything to have Emma here, and Azazel and Angel and Riptide-
…
This, too, is a good team, and he knows that he can rely on them.
And when they finally make a move on that base they are as ready as they can be.
Erik, of course, goes first. Sharp metal spikes ready to be shot he waits for Mystique's signal, helmet safe upon his head, and when the shapeshifter nods he tears the thick metal door from its hinges and throws it down the corridor they have now access to.
This knocks out two heavily armed guards that Burner takes quick care of, and when no more is left than two piles of ashes – the guns now in the hands of his allies – he puts the door back into the frame and lets them fuse as he rushes down the sterilely white corridor.
No human who works in such an institution, they decided, deserves to be left alive.
This place is another maze of rooms and hallways, and all they have for a map is Erik's sense of the metal structures. Their first priority, according to the plan, is to get rid of any guards and scientists, and they split up – Mystique and Shocker leading two other teams.
When they meet again in front of the cells where the mutants – test subjects – are kept no human who was inside is still alive, and they try to prepare themselves for what they might find here.
Finally, after another nod from Mystique, Erik also makes short work of the door in front of him and steps into the opening, only to freeze in shock.
In front of him is a circular room, lined with small cells. There is no more than one exit – which they just came in through – and only half of the cells are occupied. The mutants locked up inside…
Are in a terrible state.
Upon seeing the group who came to free them, however, they seem to wake from their desperate haze; and as Erik's fury makes his blood boil, the metal bars crumbling under the surge of his powers, the others run in to help these seven mutants who were treated no better than animals by those disgusting researchers.
Collars are being opened, gags removed.
Slowly, the mutants move to stand once again with the help of Erik's Brotherhood, and as he offers them a safe house, food and rest all of them agree. Vanisher takes them out – Quill and Lorelei come along – while the others stay to help Erik and Mystique search the base for anything interesting.
They find what seems to be a storage room containing data on everything.
As Ink and Shocker assemble mountains of information about similar labs and facilities Mystique is browsing through folders upon folders of experiment designs and results.
Erik, in the meantime, has chosen to work through the shelves housing information on any mutant who was imprisoned here if even for no more than minutes. Every folder contains names and alter egos, detailed descriptions of appearance and abilities, suggestions on which kinds of experiments might be conducted, and the results of those which actually were performed.
As he skims all the folders in order to get an idea on who was imprisoned here, and what exactly was done with them, he fights to keep control over his powers.
He is furious for every single mutant who has experimented upon; however, some are worse than others.
It is one of the last folders that is worst.
Upon opening it his eyes immediately find two things – the name 'Charles Xavier', and a picture of strikingly blue eyes hazy with pain.
He freezes for a moment, shocked, then quickly begins to read everything before he can even consider whether he wants to know – whether it is his place to know.
There are details on what they knew of Charles' telepathic abilities, and a description of his role in the 'Cuban Missile Crisis'. The next section, concerning the experiments conducted, feature the words 'Ability Enforcement Project', 'Project: WideAwake' and 'Mutant Genome Project'.
Erik feels sick as he remembers yelling "Ever heard of the Mutant Genome Project, Charles?" at the telepath.
It still gets worse, though.
There is a very detailed description of what Charles had to go through in the research for the Mutant Genome Project, which included lots of extremely painful procedures. It is, however, nothing compared to what was done for the Ability Enforcement Project.
The subject is only the second with telepathic powers ever examined by the Research department of Trask Industries, and as such the goal was to know more details on the abilities this gift provides him with. After a number of experiments concerning the range and strength had been conducted, it was decided to also focus on social aspects. In an attempt to find out how well telepathic powers may act as a substitute for actual conversation the subject's vocal chords were surgically removed in order to deprive it of all abilities to physically speak..
There are also some very detailed pictures-
…
For all that Erik knows, the world might have stopped turning, or be exploding around him.
He would not realize it, caught in shock and disgust and pain as he is.
They removed Charles' vocal chords.
" Jeez, Charles, are you even above talking?" resounds in his memories, louder and louder still, and then he whips around and barely makes it to the sink located at one of the walls before retching violently.
Mystique immediately runs towards him, and all he manages to do is tear the folder (which she has pried from his fingers as he has been unable to answer any of her questions) from her hands after she has seen the name of her brother on the first page.
"Don't!" he wheezes as she tries to reach for it again, wide yellow eyes ablaze with shock and anger.
"He's my brother!" she screams even as Ink wraps his arms around her to stop her from attacking Erik, "I deserve to know!"
Erik shakes his head, gulps. "You don't," he murmurs. "Hell, neither did I! He… didn't tell us, after all. Also… I really wish now that I wouldn't know. Spare yourself this, Mystique."
She grows limp in Ink's arms, and her eyes tear up.
"Is it… really that bad?" she asks, whispering as if she were afraid of the answer.
Well, probably she is.
Erik nods, eyes closed as he rinses his mouth.
"It is."
She gulps heavily, suppresses a sob.
"What… what are we going to do?"
His face, Erik supposes, must look murderous.
"We finish cleaning up here, take the evidence we need and burn the rest. Then we return to our hideout and look after those we freed, like we promised. A soon as we know that they're well, we make for Westchester. Well, I will, and I guess I couldn't stop you from coming along if I tried?"
Her eyes are dark and angry, even as pained tears are escaping them.
"You're right – you can't."
"I know."
Ink releases his hold, then, and Erik tells Vanisher to take the shelves to the base in Egypt, which the teleporter knows by now.
Charles' folder, however, he keeps.
Of course, Mystique notices.
"What're you going to do with that?"
"Return it to Charles. He might not want to be reminded of all this, but what happens with it is his choice. I won't read more than I already did."
Instead of the objections he expects he receives just an accepting nod.
"You're right. It's not our business. Just- … would you tell me what- …"
"…was so sick?" he finishes her question (she flinches), and ponders the matter for a moment. "I… alright. But don't say I didn't warn you. They… they removed his vocal chords, in order to see if he can communicate with only his powers which, of course, they mostly suppressed," he finally explains, figuring that this is easier than Charles having to tell her himself.
Mystique is not the only one to run for the sink, then.
TBC
