Indomitable X-Men
Band of Brothers
Chapter Four
…
The four X-Men currently in residence at Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters rushed into the computer lab to find that the resident computer nerd, Forge, was already interfaced with a PC under the observation of Professor Xavier.
"Hello, students," said the Professor, looking up as they came in. "I am assuming, then, that you also saw Magneto's broadcast?"
"Right," Scott agreed. "It looks like you had the same idea we did, Professor. Having Forge trace the signal?"
"Eh, it's no good," Forge said, withdrawing his prosthetic arm from the USB port. It folded up until it looked like a normal, flesh and bone arm once again. "Whoever they've got on tech is a freakin' genius. Multiple signal switchbacks and piggybacks. I can't find just a single source for it. Sorry, sir."
"It's quite all right, Forge," Xavier said, patting the boy on the shoulder. "I'm sure you did your very best, and that is all I can ask of anyone. Thank you." He turned back to the X-Men as Forge left the lab. "Well then, I'm afraid that we are simply going to have to wait for Magneto's next move. If we cannot find out where he is, then we must wait in ambush where we hope he will be."
"The devil you say!" interrupted Warren Worthington III. "My Dad's in with the MRD and Trask Industries! For all we know, Magneto's going after him!" He scowled and banged a fist down on a desk. "He might be a jerk, but he's my jerk," he slumped into a chair, "and he's the only Dad I've got."
"It's all right, Warren," said Jean, resting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll keep your Dad safe." She looked at Professor X. "Do we really have to keep guys like Bolivar Trask and Colonel Moss safe, though? I mean, wouldn't the world be a better place if all the anti-Mutant guys were turned into Mutants?"
"I'm with Jean-o," Bobby said. "Guys like that deserve to be muties like us." He looked around and saw that the others were glaring at him. "What?"
"'Mutie' is a genetic slur, Bobby," said Scott. "I've already asked you a few times to stop using it."
"It's not his fault," Jean said. "It's the environment he was raised in."
"You're just saying that because he agrees with you."
"And what if I am?"
"Enough," said the Professor's voice, directly into their minds as he pressed two fingers to his right temple. "Are you X-Men or are you squabbling children? I expect you to deport yourselves according to your rank within this school. Jean, if Trask or Moss was made a Mutant by the machinations of a terrorist like Magneto, then it would only fuel the fire against us. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Professor," Jean answered aloud. "So, what's our plan of action then?"
"I want you to come up with a plan of action and submit it to me for approval," the Professor said. "Scott, I am making you de facto leader of the X-Men until Henry returns. I trust that you will do your best to make me proud."
Scott straightened up, clenching his fists at his sides. "You can count on me, sir," he said proudly. Turning to the others, he grinned. "All right, X-Men, suit up and get to the War Room! Let's come up with a plan to guard our worst enemies from their worst enemies."
"I still don't get what's wrong with 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'," Bobby complained as they all left the room.
…
"It stinks down here," Quicksilver complained, picking his way carefully through the sewer pipe. "This muck is doing nothing for the cleanliness of my uniform!"
"I don't understand why we couldn't just use the stuff in that vial, like you said," the Scarlet Witch said to Magneto. She was just as disgusted as her brother over the disgusting sewage of New York City, but refused to whine. "Is that not what it was for?"
"That was not anything like enough," Magneto said, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the five members of the Brotherhood of Mutants. "For it to work, they need to drink about a cup of it. That was all my contact managed to manufacture at first, but I was recently sent a missive that he had the rest. All we need to do is go and collect it."
"I see," said the Scarlet Witch, looking around and wrinkling her nose. "And your friend lives in the sewers, does he?"
"Not usually," Magneto admitted. "This is strange, even for him. Ah, here we are."
In the wall of the sewer pipe was set a round, pristine, brushed steel door with a coded lock. Magneto typed in a code and the door rolled open, revealing a gleamingly clean laboratory inside.
"This is more like him," said Magneto, walking in with the Brotherhood in tow.
"Ah, Magnus, I was wondering when you would get here." The members of the Brotherhood did a collective turn to see a pale man in a lab coat thrown on over a Victorian-era suit walking towards them, arms open. "I see that you have some new recruits. May I take DNA specimens of them?"
"I have no objections," said Magneto, "but you shall have to ask them, Sinister."
Sinister raised an eyebrow as the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Nightcrawler all glanced at each other. "First," said Nightcrawler, "what are you going to do with our blood?"
"Study it," Sinister said, shrugging. "I'm a simple scientist, studying ways to improve on Mutant-kind. At the moment, I'm trying to trace the origins of the X-gene, and that requires specimens from as many Mutants as I can find."
Nightcrawler shrugged as well. "All right," he said. "Go ahead." Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch gave their permission as well, and Sinister grinned, baring short fangs.
"Excellent," he said. "Lightwave?" A blonde girl, also in a lab coat, stepped out of a shadow. Under her coat, she was dressed in a blue bodysuit liberally dotted with gold sequins. "This is my apprentice, Lightwave," Sinister introduced her to everyone. "She can control light to create lasers, spotlights—anything anyone could need."
"I can even become invisible by absorbing light instead of reflecting it," Lightwave said. "It's pretty cool. I'm thankful to Mister Sinister for teaching me how to use my Gifts."
"Yes, well, that's quite enough of that," Sinister said, sneering. "Lightwave, please take blood samples from the blue one and the twins, then run them through a scanner in the other lab, and report anything unusual to me."
"Yes, sir," Lightwave said, dropping a curtsey before guiding the three Brotherhood members over to a lab table. "Mister Sinister makes me curtsey to him," she explained, gesturing to Nightcrawler that he should sit down. "He's very old-fashioned. I think that he grew up in the eighteen-hundreds." She pursed her lips as she uncapped a syringe. "Anyway," she told Nightcrawler, "you might feel a pricking sensation, but it shouldn't hurt."
"So, my old friend," Magneto said, following Sinister to another table, which had what appeared to be a high-school chemistry set on it, "what possessed you to move into the sewers of New York?"
"I moved here from Nebraska to be closer to someone I am studying," Sinister explained. "The sewers are part of…another project that I am working on. That needs to be kept a secret for now, though. Ah, here we are." He lifted a box of vials, all filled with a blue-green, viscous fluid. "Here's your serum. All ready to destroy whatever targets you so wish."
"I do not wish to destroy them, only to transform them into one of us," said Magneto, sharply.
"But with the targets you have in mind," Sinister said, lifting a finger, "that would destroy them emotionally, to say nothing of their careers and families, will it not?"
"Touché," Magneto said, looking faintly impressed. "I admit, that is indeed my plan. When the leaders of the anti-Mutant groups are themselves Mutants, then they shall have no choice but to accept their brethren. Is that not so?"
"It is to be hoped," said Sinister, turning back to the table and curling his lip in a sneer at Magneto's perceived naiveté.
…
A double-helix curled across the screen. "You feel sick inside every time you wake up," said the voice-over. "Your family's been ripped apart, your friends have all turned their backs on you, all because of one thing—the X-gene. Now, thanks to Worthington Pharmaceuticals, you no longer have to worry. Introducing 'Hope', the only medicine that actually suppresses the Mutant X-gene, it can allow you to live a normal life, because we care."
Scott switched the screen off. "Okay, Warren, you're right. Directly after a Mutant terrorist reveals his plans to destroy anti-Mutant people probably isn't the best time to advertise a drug that can take our powers away." He leaned over and put his hands on the table, meeting the other X-Men's eyes as best as he could in his visor. "So, Magneto's going after Worthington. What do we do about it?"
…
To be continued…
