Chapter Eight
Storm paced across Xavier's office, electricity crackling around her hair. Logan noticed and said, "'Ro, calm down."
"Calm down? Jean and ten of our students were abducted, and you want me to calm down?"
"Logan's right, Ororo," Xavier said quietly. "There's not much we can do if we act impulsively. We don't even know where they were taken."
Storm ran her hands through her hair. "I just can't stand the thought of them being hurt," she admitted. Logan glared at her. "You think you could say that a little louder?" he asked sarcastically, shooting a glance at Scott. Their leader had gone into a state of shock when he'd found out that Jean had been taken.
He looked up suddenly. "Cerebro. We can find them with Cerebro," he said. Xavier nodded. "I had thought of that. But if they're still wearing those cuffs the students told us about, Cerebro might not be able to identify them as mutants."
"But it's worth a try. It's the only thing we have to go on," Scott said, almost begging. Xavier sighed. "All right. I'll go see if Cerebro can locate them."
He left the office. Storm resumed pacing.
"Maybe we should try to contact them telepathically," Logan said. "They might be wearing those cuffs but they might not. It's worth a try."
** Jean? Can you hear me? **
There was no answer. He could tell that Storm and Scott were trying to contact their friend but having no luck.
Xavier came back a few minutes later. "I've found them. They're in Colorado."
@ @ @
Raptor groaned and opened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was Lance shoving a needle into her arm, then blackness.
She was suddenly aware that she couldn't move. She could blink, turn her head, make any number of small head movements, but from the neck down she was immobile.
She glanced around the circular room. The others were all there, sitting in chairs with their wrists cuffed to the armrests, still with those white metal cuffs. All of them had an IV drip going into their right arm, draining some sort of bright pink fluid into their veins. Raptor looked at her own right arm and saw the same drip of pink fluid.
In the middle of the room was an intricate-looking machine. She had no idea what it was supposed to do, but it didn't look like it could be anything good. There were about half a million wires connected everywhere and a metal seat in the centre, with round knobs at the ends of the armrests.
Most of the others were waking up now. It appeared that although none of them could move, that didn't stop them from swearing. Very inventively. Even Jean was indulging in a little verbal abuse of whatever had brought them here.
"What the hell?" Sabrina muttered. "Why can't we use our powers?"
"Karamantium," a guy's voice said. "The cuffs are made of karamantium, which is a form of the metal adamantium, the metal your friend Logan has in his body. Really very useful stuff."
A patch of air shimmered and a guy in his early twenties appeared. He was tall, with short black hair, black eyes and black clothing. Jeans, shirt, jacket, everything was black.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Damien, the owner of this facility. And the creator of the Augmentator, which is the device you see in front of you. I had originally planned for only three of you to be here, but the Augmentator had exceeded my expectations. I had at first thought it would be capable of handling only three mutants, but now it appears it is so much stronger that it has infinite possibilities. Observe."
He pressed a button on the wall beside him and a hidden door swished open, revealing Dusk, a limp female body in his arms. He walked over to the Augmentator and placed the body in the seat, moving the hands to rest on top of the smooth knobs. Small, flexible metal strands whipped out and fasted over the hands, anchoring them into place.
Damien turned back to the captive mutants. "Angelique here was involved in an unfortunate accident. It left her almost completely braindead. Normally, there would be no chance of her surviving more than a few days. Now, however…"
He surveyed the prisoners. "Which of you would care to be a part of my demonstration?" he asked. His eyes stopped on Kurt and Rogue. "You two will do for today's show," he said. He pressed another button and two dark-haired girls in nurses' uniforms came in. Damien said, "prepare those two for the Augmentator."
The girls nodded and walked over to Kurt and Rogue. They removed the drips and attached electrodes to their foreheads. One of the girls pulled Rogue's gloves off and stuck electrodes to the palms of her hands, the other doing the same to Kurt. After a few minutes, they stepped back and waited.
Damien nodded. "Very good. Now, the rest of you, watch."
He nodded to Lance, who threw a switch on the Augmentator. There was a humming noise, then the machine started to glow bright blue. The light traveled along the wires to Kurt and Rogue, pulsing slightly.
The two mutants screamed. The light increased and their bodies started jerking, as if they were having epileptic seizures. Kitty shrieked, "you're going to kill them!"
Damien gestured to Lance, who lifted the switch, shutting off the machine. The light faded and Rogue and Kurt collapsed, completely unconscious.
The girl in the machine was quite the opposite. The wires released her hands and she stood up, her eyes wild. "Wh-what the hell is going on?" she asked. Damien replied, "relax, Angelique. My machine works. You've just proven it. Though there is one more facet of its abilities to show my guests."
He motioned Lance over. He suddenly grabbed Lance's hand and held it in a vice-like grip. "Angelique, touch Lance. And keep your hand on him until I say."
Angelique did as she was told. As they watched, Lance slowly weakened visibly. Damien finally said, "you can let go any time you want, Angelique. I think my guests know what the Augmentator can do now."
Angelique kept her hand on Lance, however, until he was lying on the floor, his body motionless. She removed her hand and smiled. "That was refreshing. Will I always have this power?"
"My research indicates that it should last as long as you do," Damien said. Angelique frowned. "That's a strange way of putting it, Damien."
"Well, you see, in your case the power will last another ten seconds or so," Damien said. He pulled out a switchblade and raked it across Angelique's throat. Then he dropped her body on the floor beside Lance.
He turned to the captive mutants. "You see how my machine works now, and why I want you alive. That doesn't mean I'll tolerate any trouble. You've experienced the pain my cuffs can bring; I suggest that if you don't want to feel it again you'll behave. I'm going to have the IVs removed now, so you'll be able to move again, but don't try anything. If you give me any problems I will order your deaths. Understood?"
The two dark-haired girls disconnected the IVs one by one. Damien gestured to Remy, Bobby and Raptor. "You three, take the Southern girl and follow Crystal here. She'll take you to your rooms."
Remy scooped Rogue up in his arms, being careful not to touch her skin. They followed the dark-haired girl to a large room with four beds and a door that Crystal said lead to the bathroom. Remy gently laid Rogue on one of the beds.
As soon as Crystal locked the door and left Bobby went over to Raptor and hugged her. "You're okay?" he asked, pulling back and looking her over, as if searching for damage. She smiled briefly. "Yeah. I'm okay."
She looked down at Rogue. "You think she'll be all right?"
"I really don't know."
@ @ @
The X-Jet flew toward Colorado. Scott piloted, Storm sat in the copilot seat and Logan paced.
"How long is this going to take?" Logan asked. Scott replied, "Colorado is a long way from New York, Logan. It'll be a few hours."
"Are we going to have some sort of plan or are we going to bust in there and probably get ourselves killed?" Storm asked. Logan said, "I kinda like the bust in there approach. I don't want them there any longer than they have to be."
"Getting ourselves captured or killed won't help them," Scott said. "We have to have at least some idea of what we're going to do."
"We're gonna go in, kick ass on whoever took them and get the hell outta there," Logan growled. Storm chuckled softly. "The basic Logan approach. Somehow I think we need a little subtlety here."
Logan slammed his fist into the wall. "I can't stand not knowing what's happening to them!"
"They're going to be fine," Storm said, glancing at Scott. It seemed she was the only one who was thinking straight. Scott was just concentrating on flying the jet, and Logan looked like he wanted to punch through the metal wall.
There was silence for a while, punctuated only by Logan punching the wall of the jet. Storm was a little unnerved by the silence; usually on their way to a mission, Scott would be going over the game plan, making sure there was minimal risk. Rogue would have been laughing at some joke Kitty made, trying to lighten the mood. Kitty had become a part of the X-team not long after Logan left, since Xavier had said three was too few, especially on missions where they had to split up when he liked them to have someone watching their back.
The silence was creepy and not a little foreboding. It gave her too many opportunities to think about what might to be happening to the other mutants. Things that made her want to go find a nice, dark, empty room and curl up and sleep until this whole thing was over.
Of course, that was impossible. Letting Logan and Scott go in alone was pure madness. Those two were more likely to kill each other than rescue anyone.
Almost an hour later, Scott spoke. "We're here."
@ @ @
Aura paced across their cell and hit the wall. She turned, paced across the floor and hit the other wall. Dreamer watched her taking out her anger on the walls, idly wondering if she'd be able to get through them in, oh, say, five years?
"Ya really think that's helpin', Aura?" he asked. She sighed and sat down on one of the beds. "No. But I feel so goddamned helpless! I've never felt this way before and it's totally pissing me off."
Jubilee glanced up from where she was sitting cross-legged on one of the beds and inspecting her cuffs. Sabrina was sitting on the other bed, her legs folded under her, watching Aura pace.
The door hissed open and Dusk walked in. He gestured to Sabrina. "You. Damien wants to see you."
Sabrina slowly got to her feet. "Why?" she asked. Dusk didn't answer. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her from the room, locking the door behind them.
Jubilee frowned. "What could Damien want with Sabrina?" she wondered aloud. "And where are the others? I wonder if Rogue and Kurt are okay."
"They'll be okay," Aura said softly. "Damien doesn't want to kill us until he's ready to use that Augmentator thing on us."
@ @ @
Dusk led Sabrina down about half a million long corridors before opening a door and taking her into a large, darkened room and pushing her into a chair.
Damien turned from his position at the desk and smiled. "Good morning, Miss Hunter."
"What do you want?" Sabrina asked, wishing she could use her powers and destroy this creep with her eye lasers. He smiled. "You lived with your aunt and uncle, didn't you Miss Hunter?"
Sabrina felt a chill go down her spine. "Yes, I did. What does that have to do with anything?"
"Your mother disappeared when you were thirteen years old, and you moved from Australia to New York to live with Cameron and Sally Hunter, correct?"
"How do you know all that?" Sabrina demanded. Damien grinned. "What did your mother look like, Miss Hunter? What was her name?"
"She… she was blonde, with lilac eyes. Her name was Kylie Hunter," Sabrina said slowly. "Why do you want to know?"
"Just confirming something, Miss Hunter. Tell me, do you think someone changes much in… how many years? Three, four?"
"I don't know. Look, mate, whatever this is about can we please cut the crap and get it over with?"
Damien chuckled. "You're a lot like her, Miss Hunter."
"Like who?" Sabrina demanded. Damien nodded to someone behind her and a blonde woman moved into Sabrina's line of view. A blonde woman with lilac eyes.
Sabrina's mouth dropped open and she whispered, "m-mother?"
TBC. Review me please!
In chapter nine…Logan, Storm and Scott break into Damien's facility. But they're too late to stop Raptor from making a decision that could cost her life…