Hey there!
Another update.
It's a little short, but the next one will be better, I promise.
There's a surprise guest at the end! He or she hasn't been in the whole story, so you might've been wondering where he or she was...
Anyway, please enjoy and review!
Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution, any of its characters, or Death Adder.
Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris and Neeka because I made them up.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The sound of clacking horse hooves and squeaky wagon wheels filled everyone's ears as a cart with tied up Mutants approached. It was clear that they were the Brotherhood and Magneto's henchmen judging by Blob's gigantic form. They were all wrapped up in sacks of gray cloth, so it was hard to tell who was who. Magneto walked over to Neeka, who was making her way over to the seat of the cart, which was located at the front. It sat up high, but it was just a simple board the width of the cart. She put her foot up on the step and started to lift herself up onto the flat wooden bench, but was stopped when Magneto stood in her way. "Alright, hand it over," he commanded her. She scoffed.
"You think you're really going to get it?" she asked, as if it were obvious. Magneto looked taken aback. "Don't act so surprised. You know what the deal was: Give us the whereabouts of all the Mutants you know and help us capture them. You promised forty-two; we only have eighteen—" She was stopped short at the sound of another cart approaching. They both turned to see more Mutants tied up and stacked in the cargo area.
"You didn't expect that I would send some of your measly followers out to get the rest, did you?" Magneto challenged. "I knew you'd want to call the deal off, just take what you had and bring it back to HYDRA, so I made arrangements." Neeka lifted her nose up defiantly and took a checklist out of her pocket.
"We'll see if that's all of them," she huffed angrily, stomping her way over to the other cart to see what Mutants had been captured.
Iris wiped her eyes for what was hopefully the last time and looked around the empty, trashed lab. She knew she did wrong, but wasn't it okay if it was for the right reason? Her hands were folded in her lap, and she wasn't as eager as before to know how to get Mneme back. With a sigh, she stood up and walked outside, only to see everyone tied, wrapped, and stacked in a cart pulled by horses. Magneto and Neeka were talking lowly, and neither of them looked very happy. Iris approached them and stared at Magneto demandingly, ready to receive what she had worked for. "What?" he asked stingily. Iris held out her hand to make things more clear. "Oh, you want your reward…" he realized, folding his arms as he tried to think up something. "You don't get it just yet. There are some Mutants missing that we need to catch." Magneto took the checklist from Neeka, who glared at him for a moment before returning her gaze to Iris. He handed it to the girl, and she read the names quickly and looked up at him, wondering why she should care. "Help us catch them and you'll get your reward." Crushing the paper in her hand, she stomped her foot angrily; catching the Mutants wasn't part of the deal she had made! She was fed up with doing things that she hadn't agreed to. "So, where are the rest of the X-Men students?" Magneto asked, pointing to a group of names that read Cannonball, Magma, Multiple, and a few others. Iris shrugged, not recognizing any of the names.
"Well, that was a big help," Neeka said sarcastically with a snort.
Magneto ignored her and continued, "What about Wolverine and Quicksilver?" Iris narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin up, trying to make out an expression beneath the shadow from his helmet, but he seemed sincere enough…. She nodded. "Where are they?" he asked anxiously. Iris shrugged, but held her hand up to shush them before they made any assumptions. First she pointed at the burned mansion. "They were in the lab?" She nodded, then made her fingers look like legs walking across the ground. "And then they left." To sum it up, she pointed to Quicksilver's name and then pointed to the backyard.
"He went to the backyard?" Neeka asked with confusion.
"Typical. I should've guessed that he'd go to Mneme's grave," Magneto said, a crooked smile playing on his lips under his helmet's shadow. "Alright, now can you tell me where an old man and a young woman are? Their house is somewhere in the middle of the forest, but I have a feeling you'll be able to lead us straight to them." Iris furrowed her brow. She knew he was talking about the couple that helped her and Pietro when Colossus had beaten him. Even so, she shrugged, not wanted to rat out even more people. Magneto gritted his teeth and grabbed her shoulders, crushing them in his grip, and lifted her off the ground so they saw eye to eye. "Listen here, you little brat, I know you've met them," he growled, eyes burning and boring into her own. Her own eyes were open wide with fear. Magneto tossed her to the ground, making her land on her back with a thud. "No matter…. Neeka, take half the footmen and scout the forest until you find them. They're practically defenseless," he commanded, turning his gaze towards Iris so he didn't catch the upset glare from Neeka, since she was used to being the boss. "And you…" he said with narrowed eyes, "…you're going to help capture Pietro and Logan."
Pietro and Logan spoke in low voices as they discussed their plan. "You'll create the diversion while I sneak over and get Rogue's key."
Logan looked at him apathetically. "That's your plan?" Pietro nodded, confirming his question. "You've got to be joking."
"Well, smart guy, why don't you think up something better?!" he challenged.
"Listen, kid, I'm not the type cut out for diversions."
"When a whole group of people is after you, yes you are!"
Logan rubbed his temple. "Why do we even need that key, anyway?"
"To unlock Mneme's collar. Trust me, I'm almost certain it'll work."
"Of course it's going to work; the key was specifically made to unlock it."
"That's not what I meant. I remembered that Mneme has almost every power there is, so one of them has to be coming back to life, only the collar is holding her powers in."
Logan was slightly surprised that Pietro would think of something that complex. "But she can't even contain her powers."
"It might not work, but how else are we supposed to get out of this situation?" Pietro asked, knowing that there was no other way.
"Well, what happens if I get captured and it doesn't work? Then what'll you do on your own?"
"I guess we'd better just hope that Mneme wakes up." Pietro told him. Logan looked at him unsatisfactorily. "You're forgetting that the world is going to end if we don't get the magnetic fields back in place. And I think you're forgetting that the only person that has the ability to change them back is probably Mneme."
Logan furrowed his brow and glared at him. "Fine. I'll do it."
Since they were on the same page, they crouched in the bushes and watched the group by the carts, waiting for the right moment. Neeka was getting in the cart that had just arrived, and they were leaving. About half of the HYDRA members she had brought were jogging beside the cart, leaving just the other half, Magneto, and Iris to guard the first cart containing the X-Men. Wolverine silently made his way around the edge of the forest, making sure when he revealed himself he wouldn't give away Pietro's position. He watched as a few of the footmen walked by, patrolling for any more Mutants.
"She actually said that to you?"
"Yeah, can you believe that? I support that whole household and she actually said that."
"Wow, what a bitch."
Logan rolled his eyes; they sounded like three highschool cheerleaders. He balled up his fists and the blades became unsheathed between his knuckles, blood coming along with them. All in one motion he jumped out and stabbed two of them in the back, then sliced through their sides and straight into the guy standing in the middle; they never had a chance. As he expected, the rest of the footmen saw him and stormed forward, nets and needles ready.
Iris studied the checklist. Under the heading Morlocks there was a check next to Caliban, Callisto, Cybelle, Facade, Lucid, Scaleface,and Torpid. She didn't know any of them, or Angel, Boom-Boom—in fact she didn't know about half the Mutants listed on the paper. But suddenly something caught her eye: There was a checkmark next to the name Magneto. She glanced over at him, wondering why his name would be checked off. Perhaps he was captured and their slave, being forced to act all this out? Or perhaps they just checked it off because he was on their side and didn't have to be captured at all…. Suddenly she heard the rumbling of multiple footsteps and looked up to see what the commotion was all about. The footmen were sprinting over to where Logan was, and he was slicing some of them up. She was torn between whom to help for a moment, but she remembered that if she helped capture him that would bring her closer to having her mother back…. Iris was about to run over to lend them a hand, but Magneto blocked her with his arm.
"Don't do it; it's probably a trap of some sort." Magneto could tell that she wasn't fully convinced with that theory. "Even though he's fighting back and it seems real enough, don't get involved." Iris looked at him skeptically, but nodded. She leaned her back against the cart and kept looking at the list, digging images out of her subconscious and wondering if perhaps it was one of the Mutants on the list.
Pietro watched the men sprint over to the other side of the yard, leaving his way clear of harm except for Iris and Magneto. They were standing at the side of the cart, so he moved along the edge of the woods until he was out of their range of vision—in short, he was facing the other side of the cart. He slunk over as stealthily as he could, then pressed his back against the cart. He peeked around the side, making sure no one could see him, and then he clambered onto the piled up unconscious bodies. Everyone was covered in individual gray sacks, so he was going to have his work cut out for him trying to find which one was Rogue. He pressed his body flat to make sure he wasn't visible to Iris or Magneto in case they turned around, and the sides of the wagon were tall enough to where neither of them could see over the top. He could tell that the feet were located at the tied off end of the sacks, so he looked at each of the bodies that seemed the same size as Rogue. Silently he untied one of the ropes that held the bag closed and examined the feet. They were Kurt's, which was obvious. He tied it back and moved a few bodies until he reached one that looked the same size as Rogue. He untied it and saw Rogue's shoes, so he reached up and found her wrist, then pulled the bracelet with the key off. Suppressing an ecstatic shout, he put it in his pocket and crawled forward to get out of the wagon—but was stopped when something extremely heavy was thrown on top of him. He bit his lips as to not make a noise, and turned his head to see a body in a gray bag on top of him, having been thrown over the side. He was lucky they hadn't gone to the back to throw Wolverine on the pile, or else they would have seen him. Taking a deep breath, he tried to pull himself closer to the edge, but Logan was too heavy. Pietro gritted his teeth, trying his best not to groan with fury, and twisted his torso around enough to where he could get a grip on Logan's shoulders and push him up enough to roll onto his back. He used his legs to prop the body up, gathered as much strength as he could muster, and kicked Logan off of him. The deadweight of the body landed with enough force to rock the wagon slightly, and Pietro's eyes grew wide with nervousness. Expecting someone to notice and look to see what the commotion was, he pushed a few bodies aside and crawled underneath them to hide.
Iris furrowed her brow when the wagon slightly swayed. Magneto hadn't noticed it, but she had been leaning against it and could tell that something wasn't right. She walked around to the back and took a look to see what was up. Suspiciously, there seemed to be nothing wrong at all, besides the fact that the new addition to the pile was carelessly thrown in the cart. Wolverine was askew compared to the rest of the Mutants, who were neatly placed and stacked; for some reason he was leaned up against the side of the cart, not even aligned with the other Mutants. Iris furrowed her brow and stepped up into the cart to fix it.
Pietro watched from underneath the bodies and watched Iris get nearer and nearer—until her foot slipped and stepped on the back of his head. He grunted unexpectedly, and he could tell by the way she paused that Iris had heard him. Cursing himself, he quickly untied the sack in front of him and crawled inside next to whichever Mutant was in there.
Iris stopped when she thought she heard something, but when she turned around and looked down, everything was fine. She raised an eyebrow curiously, but in the end just shrugged and guessed the tranquilizer must've been wearing off on one of the Mutants. She continued to place Wolverine along with the others neatly, and when she was done she hopped over the side of the cart.
Pietro waited a few more seconds after feeling the cart rock and hearing a thud of someone landing on the ground before checking to make sure she wasn't there anymore. He twisted his body around and peeked out the bag, and Iris was nowhere to be seen. With a silent sigh of relief, he started crawling out, but stopped short when he saw a pair of familiar maroon boots. Raising an eyebrow skeptically, he lifted the cloth up and pulled it off to reveal who it was. Who he saw confused him extremely, because wasn't Magneto standing right outside the wagon? Pietro crawled over to the side and peeked over, just to make sure the person standing there really was Magneto, and it most certainly looked like him. Blinking a few times in confusion, he looked back at the tranquilized and tied up Magneto, and that looked exactly like him too. His head swam, wondering what the heck was going on. They couldn't both be Magneto, could they? Were neither of them Magneto? Maybe one of them was an imposter? Pietro shook his head, trying to clear his mind before he thought too hard and ended up passing out, and then covered the unconscious Magneto again and tying the sack closed. Then he crept over to the edge of the wagon and carefully stepped onto the ground. He slipped around the corner and pressed his back against the side of the cart, holding his breath. Quickly he darted back into the woods and crouched down, examining the footmen's positions. Pietro was anxious to get over to Mneme and unlock her collar, but there were too many HYDRA members around that area. He bit his lip; he was quick, but without his powers he wasn't fast enough to get by without being seen…. He sighed, hoping that Magneto and the others would leave soon so he could finish his plan…which he wasn't even sure would work. Of course, just the opposite happened: Instead of them going away, another person came. Typical, Pietro thought, annoyed. That's just great… He furrowed his brow and squinted his eyes—was that someone he knew? She was walking up the driveway and toward the wagon, and she looked pretty determined, as if she only had one thing on her mind and that was the only thing that kept her together. No, I don't know any girls like that, Pietro said to himself, almost laughing at the thought as he walked deeper into the woods, but then he thought about it a little harder and took another look at the newcomer. No, it can't be—Wanda?
