Beginning Jaicen Chapter 8
The brother moved fast, agreeing to go to the locker room and change into their suits from the Danger Room in case they couldn't talk sense into Erik and had to actually fight him. It was late and they didn't see a single person the entire time they were getting ready. They both agreed that the other X-Men probably thought they'd be back before Jaicen and Al woke up and thus were safe in leaving when they did.
Before leaving the lab, they also found a set of car keys they assumedly believed were Henry's. When they went to the garage, they tested a few of the cars before finding the correct one, a rather large black one and opening the doors.
Al drove and as they both expected, the car had all the bells and whistles including the GPS they needed. Finding the address on the map had been easy enough and inputting it into the GPS told them they had 14 minutes to make it to their destination. As Al drove, they talked.
"Are you ready?" Jaicen said, pulling at his jumpsuit.
"I guess as ready as I'm gonna be," Al responded. "You know why we have to do this, right?"
"Well, I feel partly responsible, what with Xavier having to go to Washington," Jaicen said. "But moreso than that… I think it's the right thing to do given the circumstances."
Al nodded. Jaicen could almost feel his adrenaline pumping. If this was going to come down to a fight, he was ready for it.
"We need to try and talk to Erik first," Al said, glancing over to his brother.
"I don't think he really deserves the benefit of the doubt," Jaicen said back. "But I agree. If we can do this without having to fight him, then it's all the better."
Al nodded his own accord and the two rode in silence for a minute. For the next ten minutes after they talked about relatively un-important things just to pass the time and keep their minds off their task at hand.
When they reached an area they felt suitable, they pulled the car over and parked it. The two then made their way there. They used the formerly diced up fence to get in and stopped at the top of the hill overlooking the factory, both crouched.
"I don't see any movement," Jaicen said. "Or hear it."
Jaicen tried to attune his hearing and smelling to the area.
"Let's go down, but be careful," Al said, his hand to his visor.
The two went down slowly, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. It wasn't long before they came upon the first body, laying on the ground wrapped up with some sort of metal fencing.
"He's alive," Jaicen said. "But unconscious."
The brothers looked around and noticed a few other forms lying prone in the distance. Clearly, Magneto had been here.
"I just hope we're not too late," Al said and hurried toward the second factory.
Jaicen got a whiff of Erik at that point as they neared the factory.
"He was here recently," Jaicen said, whiffing at the air again. "Very recently, we're only a few minutes behind him."
They got to the second factory and saw another guard unconscious against the wall. At least Erik seemingly had not killed anyone. Hopefully, he hadn't succeeded in killing anyone yet. Jaicen glanced up to the different camera's that were positioned outside of the buildings and noticed they'd all been crushed by some force. Erik didn't like to be spied on.
They pushed through the factory and through the first room into the second room. The light was on in both rooms. The room smelled even more like Magneto. They made their way up to the top of the elevator and saw the elevator had descended but had not come back up yet. The only thing below them was darkness.
The two looked around and Jaicen shortly found a circuit panel. He pressed a button with an up arrow next to it and heard the machine start to ascend. The two waited for a few moments before it reached top with a deafening clang. Al climbed on and Jaicen hit the down arrow and hopped on. The two began to descend into darkness.
Jaicen could feel his nerves on edge. He kepts his hands out to his sides, his muscles ready to pop at any second.
As they got closer to the ground, a light began to emanate. Shortly thereafter, they touched down on the ground and a large tunnel that ran in one direction. The two looked at each other and without a word took off down the tunnel at a brisk pace.
Every so often, Jaicen would take a whiff at the air to see if they were closing in. They were. Erik was not going at a very fast pace, thinking he could take his time.
"He's close," Jaicen said softly.
They picked up the pace. They walked for about two minutes before they realized they could see Erik's silhouette. He had stopped. He had realized they were following him.
"To what do I owe this surprise visit?" Erik said without turning around to look at them.
"Erik," Al said. "This is a bad idea. And I think even you know it deep down."
There was silence for a moment. Then Erik began to laugh. He laughed for a moment and slowly turned to face the two of them. His face was completely passive, but his eyes showed a burning hatred. Jaicen didn't think it was necessarily directed at the two of them, but that didn't make it any less frightening.
"You two were foolish to follow me here," Erik said. "If you truly understood anything about this man or had any empathy for mutant-kind, you would be standing next to me, instead of behind me. But then I forget, you're only humans after-all. I'm going to make this warning as clear as possible. I don't wish to cause harm to Logan or Scott, but if you two push your luck, I will do what is necessary."
With that, Erik turned and continued down the hall. Jaicen could see that he was getting close to an opening which he assumed would lead him to Trask. Jaicen looked to his brother.
Jaicen then looked around the tunnel they were in. The tunnel was huge, about 3 times the height of Jaicen himself and spanned roughly twenty-five feet across. It was cavernous and able to defense.
"Do it Al," Jaicen murmured, his hand going into his pocket.
With that, Al whipped off his glasses and shot a blast at Erik. While not trained like the original Scott, Al thought his blast was low energy so as to just stun Erik. Instead, about 2 feet before it would hit Erik, it careened off some invisible force-field and instead blast to the side, hitting the tunnel walls. What it did do, was get Erik's attention.
"Very well," Erik said with a growl.
He threw one hand out in front of him, palm out. Instead of directing it towards Al, though, he directed it towards Jaicen. Jaicen felt his whole body rise into the air against his will. He tried to move his arms, but they were stuck in place. Jaicen grunted and could feel his insides pushing and crawling. Al took his hand away from his visor.
"You stupid human," Erik spat. "You don't even realize that your host's skeleton is completely covered in adamantium. I could rip your entire skeleton from your body and leave you a pile of skin and muscle."
As if to establish the point, Erik slowly closed his hand. Jaicen felt his entire body scream out in pain as if he was being crushed. He let out a yelp of pain but yet still couldn't move.
"ERIK!" Al screamed. "Let him go!"
"My name," Erik said. "IS MAGNETO!"
With that, he launched Jaicen across the tunnel into a wall where Jaicen left a sizable dent and crumbled to the ground. Al ran over to his brother, dropping to a knee to check on him. He looked up and Magneto had disappeared further into the tunnel.
"Are you okay?" Al asked.
Jaicen looked at his brother and nodded, standing up with a grunt.
"Look, maybe you should stay here," Al continued. "You're not really capable of fighting him like you want to."
"No," Jaicen growled. "We do this together."
It occurred to Jaicen that in this instance, he was in a bit over his head. But he refused to let his brother take on this maniac by himself. He would do the best he could to help out.
The two hurried down the tunnel after Magneto. A few moments later the light greeted them as they walked into a massive room that didn't seem to have any end to it.
Jaicen stopped and looked around slowly, mildly horrified.
He couldn't tell exactly how big the area was, but he knew it extended further than his eyes could tell. Directly to his left and running far back were giant shelving units that extended upwards about twenty feet in the air. All of the shelves held some sort of boxes or parts that Jaicen wasn't entirely sure of. In front of them was open space with a few lab tables.
To the right of them was the most terrifying of all. All along the wall on the right was large machines that were busy humming and putting together parts. In between the machine periodically, were the Sentinels.
Jaicen had yet to see what Sentinels looked like but he had heard about them through conversations with the different X-Men and moreso, Henry. The conversations had not done them justice.
At the moment, they seemed dormant. There were roughly ten of them and they looked to be about 20 feet high, completely human-like, with two arms and two legs, but very clearly devoid of anything else one would consider human. Their faces seemed lifelike, yet devoid of any semblance of emotion (though they were dormant at the moment). Jaicen didn't know what type of metal they were made from, but they seemed solid and smooth. He realized that the machines next to the Sentinels were busy making parts. Parts to make more Sentinels.
"Fuck," Jaicen breathed.
"We… we gotta find Magneto," Al said, clearly shaken by what he was watching.
Jaicen nodded slowly and looked around the room, seeing no sign of him. He took a whiff at the air and smelled and got a pick up on his scent.
"That way," Jaicen pointed straight forward.
"Lead the way Lassie," Al responded.
Jaicen gave him a dirty look then continued through the warehouse sniffing occasionally to try and get Magneto's scent. They hadn't noticed any actual people in the building so far, just many different machines humming and different parts. The factory was buzzing and working hard. Jaicen didn't know if it worked independently from humans or if Trask actually was here somewhere.
"This place," Jaicen said softly. "It's wrong. Everything about this place is wrong."
"Agree," Al said. "But we aren't here to destroy this place. We're here to stop Magneto from starting World War 3."
"I'm starting to think Magneto may be in the right about this," Jaicen said. "I mean, I get the whole martyr thing. But could things possibly be worse if this guy died?"
"Yeah," Al said. "I think they could be."
The two walked in silence for a few minutes until they reached the end of the room. When they reached the end, they saw a massive work station and computer that spanned across the wall about ten feet. Next to the work station was a steel door that looked shut tight. There was one man sitting at the computer typing furiously.
Jaicen popped his claws out.
"I would be well aware," the man had a nasally voice. "That one touch of a button will release the Sentinels and almost certainly cost you your lives."
He slowly turned around to look at them. The man was probably in his mid fifties, with graying hair and thick glasses. He wore a labcoat and a button up shirt underneath it with pizza stains down the front. He was very un-assuming, the type of man you'd walk right by on the street and not take a second glance.
"Trask," Al said. "You may not believe this, but we're actually here to save your life."
"That's not Trask," Magneto said.
Jaicen looked up and saw Magneto floating in the air about twenty feet high and to their left, his eyes fixed on the man. Al brought his hand up to his visor, looking at Magneto. The man looked at Magneto as well and seemed completely un-worried. His hand was hovering over a red button.
"No," the man said. "I'm not. But I can assure you that Mr. Trask knows all about this break-in and he's ready to deal with it by any means necessary."
"Then who the hell are you?" Jaicen asked.
"He's a lackey," Magneto replied, slowly descending towards the floor.
The man's hand started to shake a little as it got closer to the button.
"Now now," Magneto continued, putting a hand out.
The man's watch was clearly metal, because Magneto with just a wave of his hand send the man sprawling back a few feet to land on the floor with a grunt. He wasn't mean about it, just a warning it would seem.
"Magneto," Al said. "It's not Trask, leave him alone."
"Not Trask," Magneto agreed. "But this man still has blood on his hands. And I do believe he knows where Trask is."
"I don't!" the man yelled, now clearly scared of Magneto.
All the man's false bravado was gone with him being unceremoniously dumped away from his button. He probably assumed that he could move faster than Magneto, but he had underestimated him.
"Then I suggest you find him," Magneto said. "And quickly, because I'm not a very patient man."
Jaicen looked over to his brother, trying to figure out what to do. The two of them shared a meaningful look and Jaicen's eyes discreetly looked at the large metal door. At once, the two exploded into action.
Al shot a beam first at Magneto, to distract him, then at the ceiling around Magneto to make him dodge. Jaicen, moving faster than he could've ever imagined, ran to the door and in one swift motion, sliced through the steel like a hot knife through butter. He swung the door open and grabbed the man by his collar, throwing him through the opening. Al continued a large blast across the walls and ceiling.
Magneto was mildly surprised, which is the only reason it actually worked. His forcefield took care of the first blast, but the rubble that began to fall he decided to dodge, diving out of the way as rubble and rocks began to cascade down around him. Al made a beeline to the door, once looking over his shoulder and blast towards Magneto just to keep him pre-occupied.
Jaicen wasn't sure if Magneto just didn't expect an attack from Jaicen and Al or if he was too focused on the man, but they made it out into a small tunnel without him getting to them. Al pulled the door shut, though he was sure it wouldn't stay shut long.
"What're you… doing," the man stammered.
"If you want to live, shut the hell up and just go," Jaicen said. "God I hope this door leads somewhere."
But Jaicen really didn't wait for him, instead practically dragging him as he ran down the corridor. Al followed close behind. A few moments later, they heard a door being ripped out of the wall and knew Magneto was hot on their tails.
Al turned and looked around the small corridor they were in and decided to take a gamble. He pointed his visor up to the ceiling about 10 feet from him and shot a thin beam at the concrete. Jaicen watched as the ceiling in the area crumbled to form a type of barricade which wasn't entirely blocked off, but enough so to slow down Magneto. Hopefully.
"Good thinking," Jaicen said, continuing on through the tunnels.
They ran and ran. The man tripped a few times and let out a howl of pain a couple of times but Jaicen just kep dragging him. After a minute or so of running, Jaicen realized that the tunnel was extending upwards. It seemed like they were moving up, hopefully to an exit on ground level but he couldn't be sure.
"What the hell are we going to do when we get to the surface?" Al said, leaving the "If we get to the surface" unspoken.
"We've got an ace up our sleeves so to speak," Jaicen said, thinking Al was probably going to understand what he meant.
They ran on. Magneto never closed in on them and Jaicen didn't know if it was because of the distraction Al had caused or if he had just given up the chase, but each second he didn't catch them was a second he would gladly take.
Finally, after running upward (it inclined more as they got closer to the exit) for about ten minutes, they made it to another steel door. Jaicen looked around and down at the man he had practically dragged here who was out of breath and somehow had received scratches on his face and hands.
"You know I can run for myself," the man panted.
"Not fast enough," Jaicen responded.
At some point, Jaicen had retracted his claws but he didn't really remember when. He went to pop them out again when Al stepped forward, gently pushing Jaicen aside. He put his hand to his visor and shot a concentrated blast at the center of the door. The door exploded in a shower of sparks and flew off out into the night air.
The brothers dragged the man out into an open field. Jaicen looked back to see what they had exited from. It looked like a rather unassuming cave they had exited from. The steel door was a little strange, but apparently had not raised any alarms about anyone who could've seen it. Jaicen had no idea how far out they were, but he couldn't see either of the factories. There were trees on either side of them and straight ahead. The field they were in was relatively large, about the size of two football fields side by side.
"I could've opened that door," the man grunted.
"You think it matters at this point?" Al said irritated.
"Which way?" Jaicen asked.
Al pointed towards a copse of trees and the three made a beeline for it. They began closing in on the trees when suddenly Jaicen couldn't move. He groaned as he realized what had happened. Magneto had caught up to them.
Al realized as well and turned, blasting towards the opening of the cave. Magneto exited the cave, his forcefield easily deflecting the beam as he was focused on it. His hand was out in front of himself, holding Jaicen in place.
"ENOUGH," Magneto boomed and Al dropped a hand off his visor, clearly seeing it was doing nothing. "You two have stuck your nose in my business for long enough. The man comes with me."
Just then, the air around began to pick up and a loud booming noise was heard from above. Magneto looked up in time to see the Blackbird hovering above him. The hatch opened up and out came Iceman, Storm and Jean Grey. Jaicen watched in amazement as Iceman slid out onto a patch of ice he was creating as he slid. Jean and Storm were apparently both capable of some sort of flying or hovering because they descended down to hover between Magneto and the brothers. Jaicen suddenly felt like he could move again as Magneto released his hold on him. Jaicen put his body in front of the man and watched on.
"The cavalry is here," Magneto said disgustedly. "I was sure that Mystique would keep you busier longer than that."
Jaicen pulled out the small red button that Al had handed to him when they were making their preparations. The X-Jet had picked up their location and clearly the X-Men had realized something was amiss when they could see where the boys were.
"Magneto, you have lost," Storm boomed. "Retreat and we won't push the issue. I suggest you re-assess your view on this subject."
"It disgusts me that fellow mutants like yourself would band together to protect one of them," Magneto spat. "Just ask your new recruits what they saw in that building. Do you think they are building cars in there?"
Jean looked down at the boys. Jaicen then felt a tickle in his mind, nothing too harsh but he knew exactly what it meant. Jean was checking his mind to see what they had seen. She let out a breath.
"What is it Jean?" Iceman asked. "What did you see?"
"Potential disaster," she said softly.
"You see?" Magneto said. "They're building an army to help annihilate our entire race and you want to protect them because you believe the death of one awful human will help speed up the process? Charles has brain-washed you into protecting these worthless humans and what has it done? They hate us for who we are and would have us killed in the streets! We are homo-superior and yet we hide like mere mice."
"We've all heard your pep talks," Iceman said annoyed. "But no matter what you say, we can't just let you kill humans. If you think things are bad now, how do you think they'll be after Trask's death? The mutant registration act will assuredly be pushed into being because of his death!"
"I will give you one more chance," Magneto growled.
"And I extend the same offer to you," Storm said back, her voice crackling with energy. "We give you one more chance to stand down."
Jaicen looked up at Storm and finally saw her for the beautiful powerful woman she was. The way her hair was cascading down her face, the determination in her eyes, she was absolutely stunning. Her utter confidence in her assignment was probably part of it and the fact that she had come to the rescue, so to speak, made Jaicen think again about his original feelings towards her. This woman was truly a Goddess.
Magneto opened his mouth to speak when the ground started to shake all around them. The man behind Jaicen started to laugh maniacally as he seemed to be the only one who realized what was going on.
"What the hell…" Jaicen murmured.
The ground behind the cave about forty feet away from them, for all intents and purposes, had looked like a normal field. Maybe if they had been closer they would've noticed a more turf look to it. They might also have noticed the large crease going down the center of the turf. The ground began to open up, splitting completely down the center to show a large hatch that had led down into some other part of the laboratory.
"Mr. Trask doesn't like intruders," the man said, looking to Jaicen.
As the hatch parted, Jaicen got the distinct feeling that they were in big trouble. When the ground was completely opened, there was a silence of about thirty seconds before chaos ensued. Jaicen counted five large robotic Sentinels exploding up through the open hatch, all of their attention focused on the six mutants standing roughly fifty feet away.
"Halt mutants," one of the Sentinels said in a booming robotic voice.
There was about fifteen seconds of indecision followed by all of the mutants exploding into action against the Sentinels. Jaicen raced across the ground to get into the fight, his adrenaline coursing through his body. He let all his instincts take over and the animal side of him was ready for a fight.
If they wanted a war, a war they'd get.
End Jaicen Chapter 8
