A New Kind of Battle
"So much for keeping this base a secret," Kitty groaned after everyone left. "We didn't even last a day here before we got found out."
"That's a new record even for us," Pyro remarked. The X-Men and Misfits had finally dealt with all the police and some government officials as well as Fury and sent them on their way. "At least we don't have to run off like Elektra did."
"She decided to go ahead to Madripoor and scout out the area for me," Logan said. "She couldn't stay here or else Fury would know about her."
"He wasn't too thrilled as it was when he found out about me," Maverick groaned. "But at least this mutant sanctuary thing kept me out of his clutches and I can be with Christy."
"I can't believe the government went along with this and didn't arrest us," Bobby said. "I mean technically we have been at war with them for nearly a year."
"Yes but a lot of people are very unhappy with the way the war is going," Hank explained. "It's a stalemate and the recent Sentinel attack reminded people that they hate Sentinels more than mutants."
"Didn't think that was possible," Lance remarked.
"One Sentinel malfunctioned in New York and blew up a whole building," Logan snorted. "Lucky Spider Man and some Avengers were nearby and saved the people inside but the attack didn't win Gyrich any support."
"The Sentinels were sent to three other cities besides San Francisco," Emma said. "Twenty mutants were captured, thirteen were killed. But dozens of so called normal humans were injured and killed as well in those attacks. The MRD is going to have a lot of wrongful death lawsuits on their hands."
"Another town is suing the MRD for all the foot shaped potholes made by Sentinels as they looked for Sentinels," Sam snorted.
"In other words people are getting tired of the MRD's heavy handed tactics and the corruption that's coming out," Scott said.
"I guess they figure folks in San Francisco are crazy enough anyway so stick all the mutants here," Logan snorted. "Before they get tired and round them all up."
"That thought crossed my mind as well," Emma admitted.
"I'm curious about something, Emma. About the GRSO fiasco. What did you do to make them back off on arresting you?" Althea folded her arms.
"I have information and I told Fury I wasn't afraid to use it," Emma smirked. "And I gave him someone more…interesting to go after."
"Hydra?" Laura asked.
"Pretty much yes," Emma said. "At the risk of flattering you I thought it would be a good idea if they were taken care of as well."
"What did you give them?" Logan asked.
"Oh a little bit of this, a little bit of that," Emma shrugged. "A spy they have in the FBI. A couple in SHIELD. A safe house here. A hidden base there. Bank account numbers of some of their investors. The names of some more Hellfire Club members trying to hide like the rats they are. I also gave him the location of some of the last Weapon X facilities. Most of them were hideouts or safe houses. According to our information all the other main labs were destroyed except for one."
"The one in Madripoor," Logan growled.
"Looks like we're gonna be planning a trip there in the future," Kurt said.
"Good, I always wanted to go someplace where I haven't blown something up," Pyro quipped.
"You know Scott, you are gonna have to confront Phoenix sooner or later," Rogue added. "Before things go to the deeper level of Hell."
"I've already tried contacting Jean so many times," Scott said. "Both using a transmitter and Emma as a way to telepathically contact her."
"Let's just say the communication transmitter was the least painful of the two ways," Emma groaned. "Phoenix shut me out before Scott even had a chance."
"You have to keep trying to contact her Scott," Kitty said.
"I know," Scott said. "I know deep down Jean is still in there."
"And Phoenix wants to keep the two of you separate as long as possible," Emma nodded. "You know we may have to take a trip to Avalon sooner or later. And not just because of Phoenix."
"You mean Magneto and our little carbon copy clone squad?" Tabitha said. "Which half the planet thinks is us?"
"And the Bio Pulse that Magneto still has on Avalon," Emma said.
"Oh right, I forgot all about that stupid thing," Tabitha said.
"Considering the disaster it caused last time I suppose having a machine that can turn humans into mutants by activating their X-Gene was not the best idea," Emma said. "I'm just amazed Magneto has held off this long."
"But the big thing is Jean," Todd said. "We gotta get her to remember herself and we need to get Summers to do that before I…I mean before we have to deal with it. We as a team. Mostly us. And Cyclops. Him. Definitely he is the last best hope we have."
Emma didn't notice the slip. "Yes, Toad we all know that Scott here is the only one capable of dealing with the Phoenix one on one."
"Right, him," Todd nodded vigorously. "Him alone. Nobody else. Just him! He's the man. The big cheese! Top dog! Numero Uno…"
"Toad we all get the picture!" Wanda snapped. "That's enough!"
"Just saying that he is our last best chance," Todd fidgeted. "I'm just saying if there was someone else, and I'm not saying there is, but theoretically if there was someone else that could handle it…I'm sure that person would agree that Cyclops needs to go first. And this other person…"
"Needs to shut up!" Pietro shouted.
"All right, I have to ask a question about Toad," Emma sighed. "Was he born this way or is he on a special diet or something?"
"Pretty much both," Lance rolled his eyes and whacked Todd on the head. "You know Toad. Just rambles on about stupid things when he should shut his mouth and not say anything!"
"Shutting up now," Todd rubbed his head.
"Maybe if we get Jean back to her normal self she can wake up the Professor?" Kitty suggested.
"I dunno if that's such a good idea," Bobby said.
"Yeah she was pretty pissed at Xavier before and look what happened there," Tabitha said. "Not that he didn't deserve it the more I hear about the stuff he kept from us."
"Look we don't know the whole story," Scott sighed. "Okay maybe Xavier knew about Sabertooth being related to Wolverine but that doesn't mean he knew about Factor One and what happened with Weapon X. Even Phoenix was fooled by Sabertooth and found out the same time as the rest of us."
"What is with you Scott?" Bobby asked. "One minute you're slamming the Professor the next you're defending him!"
"Yeah what is up with that?" Tabitha asked.
"Hey! I'm still confused from the whole thing with Sinister and Phoenix okay?" Scott snapped. "As mad as I am at the Professor I want to keep an open mind! It's not like none of us never made mistakes!"
"Please I am perfect in every way," Pietro huffed.
"Any-way…" Scott groaned. "I mean let's look at the facts. You Misfits didn't tell Storm about Evan's kid right? And why? Because you were afraid Storm would overreact."
"Which she did and nearly destroyed all of Bayville," Pietro said.
"Still they should have told you! But they chose to keep that a secret because they were worried about you!" Scott said.
"Worried about Storm?" Lance blinked. "Okay let's go with that."
"True but Scott let's be honest here," Ororo sighed. "If I had spent more than five minutes with the Morlocks over the years I would have discovered the truth for myself. And when I learned the truth I did almost destroy Bayville."
"Weren't you arrested for that?" Pietro asked.
"Yes, Pietro," Ororo sighed. "I was."
"Okay bad example…"Scott said.
"Oh I got another mistake!" Pietro said. "When Rogue pushed at what she thought was Mystique over that cliff…"
"No, we talked about that and we both agreed that the only mistake that was made was I didn't push her over the cliff too," Kurt added.
"That doesn't even count because it turns out that wasn't even her you shoved over," Todd said. "You two were at each other's throats over nothing."
"Yes, but at the time you two thought it was real," Scott said.
"That was when I was naive enough to believe that Mystique and I could have a real connection," Kurt pointed out. "I didn't see her for the manipulative witch she really was. Not to mention I let my own selfish desires blind me to see how badly she hurt Rogue."
"And that was also before Mommy bought Kurt some lap dances," Pietro snickered.
"Regardless you two managed to patch up your relationship and…" Scott did a double take. "What did you say?"
"Scott are you like the only one who didn't hear about that?" Kitty asked.
"Well I knew she upset Kurt but I didn't know how," Scott said.
"He was too focused on the Cake Boss marathon," Peter explained.
"Are we going to obsess over that again?" Rogue groaned.
Scott was running out of patience. "Okay we're getting off track. Here's another example. When you were all in the Brotherhood you said nothing about Wanda's memories being altered. You just went along and let her believe a lie. Why?"
"Well Toad did it because he had the hots for her," Pietro quipped. "The rest of us did it because we didn't want her to kill us."
"Isn't that the same reason you guys said nothing to me either?" Wanda glared at the X-Men.
"Oh okay that's another bad example," Scott waved a hand.
"How about how none of us told people at school we were mutants?" Fred spoke up. "And we didn't tell people about how you guys created that one machine that let all those monsters loose and when they found out they got really mad and…"
"The point is we all made mistakes!" Scott interrupted. "Big ones. And we all had reasons for doing them. And maybe the Professor did the same thing. I mean look how crazy Wolverine went when he found out the truth. As mad as we are we should give him some benefit of the doubt. He has done a lot of good. I think he was just caught up in a few bad situations and had to make some hard decisions in order for it to keep things from getting worse."
"You mean that whole going along with his old man's idea of making a mutant army until he wised up and realized his father was just using him?" Pietro asked. "I can relate to that."
"And I'm pretty sure that his father's death was an accident," Wanda said. "I mean even though I have tried to kill my father and still dream about it I'm not so sure that I'd feel better if I did kill him. Well at least in the long run."
"Trust me, it doesn't help," Rogue sighed. "I was just lucky with that whole statue mess with Mystique."
"Maybe that's why he always felt so secretive and felt he had to keep us in the dark?" Kurt said. "So those same mistakes wouldn't happen again?"
"Maybe but I'm still ticked off that he knew about Sabertooth and didn't tell me," Logan growled. "And I don't know how much of my past he purposely kept a secret. Maybe all of it. But now...I'm wondering if that's not such a bad thing. I've got some bits and pieces of memory and information and I don't like what I did. And I know if I was the bad guy I used to be...Maybe Chuck was right not telling me. He was probably trying to save me from myself. I don't know. There's just so much I'm still not sure of. But I am sure of one thing, Charles has this thing about second chances. Guess he was just trying to give me one."
"He did bring us all together," Kitty said. "And helped most of us when we needed it."
"Exactly. The point I am trying to make is that we all need to learn to forgive and let go," Scott said. "It's okay to get mad and frustrated but at some point you have to get over the pain and mistakes of the past. It's no different than us trying to coexist with humanity. We have to try and get over all the hate and anger. Or else we'll be trapped within this void of rage forever."
Scott looked at them. "It's easy to hold onto pain. It's easy to get trapped in the past. It's easy to hate. It's hard to forgive. It's hard to let go. It's hard to move on. But it's better. Because it's the only way we can become better people and maybe find some peace in this world. We have to remember that Xavier is only human and humans make mistakes. We're human too and we've certainly made our share of mistakes. We need to forgive."
"Xavier was also responsible for letting us Misfits come over every day to be with you guys," Pietro added.
"And I'm back to blaming Xavier again," Scott said. "Hey, it's a difficult process! Okay? Nobody said forgiveness was easy!"
"So what now fearless leader?" Rogue asked. "How are we going to handle our rescue missions when we're being watched?"
"I hate to say it but as far as keeping a low profile the MLF have the right idea," Scott sighed. "On their missions anyway."
"Since we can't go on as many rescue missions as we used to, we're going to have to rely on other mutant groups," Althea said. "We need to contact the MLF and try negotiations again."
"Oh yeah," Bobby groaned. "We all know how well that went the last time!"
"I think they might be more receptive to listen to us this time," Althea said. "We're offering a mutant sanctuary. Not even Rocker would take that lightly."
"What about X-Force?" Daria asked.
"We'll try talking to them again but I don't think they'll listen," Logan grunted.
"Then we'll have to make them listen. From now on, the world is going to be watching us," Scott said. "Let's not disappoint it."
For the next two months the X-Men and Misfits worked hard on their 'great experiment'. San Francisco became a haven for mutants seeking protection from the MRD. And the X-Men and Misfits did everything possible to keep it that way.
Hank, Moira and Dr. Reyes gave out much of the medical information on genetics and did a lot of research on ways of using what they knew as cures for diseases. Often working with doctors at hospitals with their patients. Most of the patients were either cancer or AIDS inflicted as well as many mutant patients.
The Misfits often assisted the police in handling criminals of both the human and mutant variety, but mostly human. They often were key in taking down drug dealers, mostly dealers in Jump. Emma herself helped find many missing persons in the city.
Scott, Ororo and Althea would have many meetings with prominent politicians and community leaders, not only those of San Francisco but around the world. Leaders from around the world came to San Francisco to meet with the mutants. Even leaders like the Black Panther and Prince Namor of Atlantis.
Surprisingly Kitty and Lance were named as official liaisons of mutant affairs to City Hall. More surprisingly they were able to put their romantic past behind them in order to work together. Kitty was interested in politics and had a passion for speaking about mutant rights. To everyone's surprise Lance discovered he had a way with people too. Especially union leaders and other blue collar workers. And no, he didn't threaten them. Many of these people could relate to Lance more than Kitty. In their eyes he was a kid from the wrong side of the tracks trying to make good. And his time in the army didn't hurt.
It also goes without saying that Lance understood the mentality of some of the union workers and their 'supporters'. And later on it was revealed that Lance would have the ear of some other prominent officials.
There will be more on that later.
Scott, Althea and Emma also worked with many of the San Francisco mutants, looking for those willing to teach and work with other mutants in the field. Emma had some contacts from her Hellfire Club days who had left the business and wanted to settle for a less illegal lifestyle. With her money and contacts along with the city's backing they began to build a downtown center where mutants could go for help with their powers and support.
It was decided that for now Maverick and his daughter would stay in San Francisco and help out with training and other low level missions. Mostly Maverick would do the missions and he spent most of the time training his daughter. Later he would help out in the downtown Mutant Support Center when it was built.
Wolverine left soon after to go to Madripoor. He had to track down both his brothers and try to get as much intelligence on the last Weapon X base. Later it would be revealed he would do a lot more than that.
The irony was the feared great clash between humans and mutants would never happen in San Francisco. Other than a few mild skirmishes the violence between humans and mutants in that city was surprisingly lower than expected. In later years it would be held up to as an example of humans and mutants working together. In fact, shortly after the war the San Francisco police department would be the first to have a large amount of mutant cops openly serving the beat. As a result the crime rate would drop to one of the lowest in the entire world.
Then again it is fair to point out that San Francisco already had a leg up in the solving crimes department due to a certain defective detective named Adrian Monk. He was the one who figured out the X-Men were innocent of the crimes their clones committed and was able to prove it. We won't be discussing much of Adrian Monk in this chronicle. Especially since most of his interactions with the X-Men and Misfits didn't come until after the war. But it is important to mention that it was a human that was able to help clear the X-Men and Misfit's names.
An insane, obsessive compulsive human with uncanny powers of observation and deduction rivaled only by his uncanny ability to drive everyone he met crazy. But a human nevertheless.
It's also no surprise that Captain Leeland Stottlemeyer was able to easily work with the mutants and deal with them in a fair and patient manner. After dealing with Adrian Monk and all his phobias as well as his obsessive compusive behavior, handling mutants was a walk in the park. In fact he said that even telepathy wasn't as freaky as some of the observations and deductions Monk pulled off.
The greatest challenge of the X-Men and Misfits would be at the end of the war on the other side of the country. Back in Bayville. And some of the most violent and significant fights were not between the X-men, Misfits and their enemies, but all the other groups involved in the war as well.
Millions of brownie points to everyone who guessed right! Great job guys! Next we're going to see a bit more of the other maniacs involved in the war and what's going on in their lives.
