Electra slowly felt herself regaining consciousness. She had awoken from a
horrible dream, where she had been caught out in a storm and struck by
lightning. She felt pain course throughout her entire body as she slowly
regained her sensations. She tried to sit up but felt something pushing
against her chest. She struggled to open her eyes, feeling as if they were
tied down. Finally her vision returned and she gasped in shock at what she
saw.
She saw an image in front of her in a standing full-length mirror. But what she saw could not possibly be her. Could not possibly be human.
The mirror showed a figure secured to a bed that had a roughly human shape, but from there any human resemblance ceased. The figure had only the slightest hint of facial features, and it was glowing iridescent blue. The familiar curves normally present in a human female were barely visible. Electra gazed at the figure and slowly realized that she was looking at herself.
Electra opened her mouth to scream, but the only sound that came out was a strange electric whine, like the sound of feedback from a microphone. What the hell's happened to me, she thought to herself.
X
Magneto watched Electra regain consciousness and winced as she screamed. He waved his hand and the restraints loosened themselves and the table tilted backwards. He walked up to her prone form.
"Hello, my Livewire. How do you feel?" he asked her.
Electra opened her mouth again and strained to bring clarity to her voice, "Wh.Whh.What ..have you done to me? Why are you calling me that" Her voice was raspy and had an electric quality, and sounded like she was speaking into a loudspeaker.
"You have been reborn, Electra, and therefore I am giving you your new name," said Magneto. "I have given you a gift beyond all gifts. You are one of us, a mutant!"
"W.Why have you done this?"
"To awaken your true potential! You can be so much more now, do so much more!"
Electra slowly sat up and ran a hand across her chest. Her body felt alien to her touch. She could feel no skin at all on her chest. She placed a hand where her breasts should have been and felt only a slight protrusion from her chest. Pressing harder, she recoiled as she felt her hand actually pass into her own body.
"What's happened to my body!" she asked angrily.
"Your body is no more," explained Magneto. "My procedure has destroyed it and left you with a form of pure energy. I know you are very angry and confused right now, but I assure you, things will be better for you this way,"
"How the hell could they possibly be better for me?" Electra shouted, her electric voice filling up the entire room. "I'm not even human any more! How can I possibly live like this?" She anger gave her a surge of strength and she leapt off the table, ignoring the residual pain.
Magneto took a step backwards. "This procedure has given you incredible new powers to go along with your new body," he said. "You are now a being of pure energy. You can control and harness electricity in ways that men like Einstein and Tesla never even imagined! Think of what you can do with these abilities! I can teach you to harness them, if you'll let me,"
The words "pure energy" sent Electra over the edge. She collapsed to her knees and wailed in fury as Magneto's words ripped the last shreds of her humanity away from her.
Magneto gestured to Colossus, who brought a wide cylindrical machine forward and set it on the ground near Electra.
Magneto spoke to her again. "I don't want to rush you, I know you need time to reflect on this. Take this time to rest and recover your strength. When you're ready, I'll teach you what you need to know,"
Colossus activated the machine. It lit up with a hum, and Electra felt herself being pulled towards it as the capacitor sucked her inside of it. It shook as it absorbed her and then went silent, leaving nothing where the mutant had just been.
X
At the Institute, Xavier wheeled towards the kitchen, his disturbing dream still hanging on his mind. As he made his way through the hall, he saw Jean Gray walk out of the bathroom.
"Good morning, Jean," he greeted her.
"Morning, Professor," she said, then noticed the slight look of concern on his face.
"Professor, is everything all right?"
"I'm nor sure, Jean. Did you have any kind of strange dreams or visions last night?"
Jean thought for a moment, then said, "No, Professor, nothing out of the ordinary. Did you see something last night?"
"I don't know," Xavier said nervously. "I sensed something disturbing last night, as if somebody were crying out in great agony. I couldn't get anything more,"
Jean looked worried. Usually when the Professor sensed trouble, he was right about it. "Maybe we should check Cerebro out after breakfast to see if it's detected any new mutant signatures" she said.
"Cerebro would have alerted us by now if it had detected anything," said Xavier. "We'll have to wait until,"
"Until you see something else," Jean said.
"Exactly," said Xavier, and they both continued on to the kitchen.
X
On the outskirts of Bayville, three tents were set up around a small campfire. Inside one of them, Lance Alvers sat up, rubbed the sun out of his eyes, and yawned. It was good to get out of the boarding house and away from Pietro for a change, even if it did mean sleeping on hard ground.
He opened the flap of his tent and walked outside to find Fred trying to start a fire for breakfast. The large mutant was rubbing two small trees together, trying to get some sparks.
"Geez, Freddy, how long have you been trying to get a fire going?" asked Lance.
"Um, about an hour," said Fred, shrugging his shoulders.
"And is there any chance we'll be having breakfast before it gets dark today?"
"Hey, give 'im a break, Lance," said Toad. "You're starting to sound like Pietro. Besides, there's plenty of food around, if you know where to look,"
Toad lifted up a rock from the ground and saw a number of bugs crawling around underneath it. "Jackpot!" he said, and scooped them up with his tongue in one swoop.
"Ugh," groaned Lance, turning green. "I think I just lost my appetite,"
After a few more minutes, Fred succeeded in starting a fire, and soon the three members of the Brotherhood were eating a hearty breakfast of eggs, pancakes and bacon.
"Ya gotta admit," said Lance. "This sure beats sitting around having Pietro yell at us all the time," he said.
"I'll say," said Fred, chewing on a piece of bacon. "If we were at home, we'd be cooking HIM breakfast and licking up the crumbs,"
"Too bad Wanda didn't want to come along," said Toad. "She woulda had a good time, ya know? Sittin' around the fire, sleeping out under the stars, all that romantic stuff,"
"Give it a rest, Toad," said Lance. "She's never gonna fall for you, not when she has more fun blowing you up,"
"Hey, you've never seen how attractive I can be," Toad said. "I just have to try a little harder, that's all!"
Lance chortled. Toad was nothing if not persistent at his efforts to get Wanda to like him.
The mutants finished their breakfast and began to break camp. After a while they were packed and headed back to town in Lance's jeep.
X
As the three mutants drove up to the boarding house, they saw a car in the driveway.
"Wonder who could be visiting the house?" asked Toad as they got out of the jeep.
His question was answered a second later when Gambit walked out. Wanda and Pietro followed right behind him, each carrying a pair of suitcases.
"Sweetums! We're back!" said Toad as he sidled up beside Wanda. "Did you miss us?"
Wanda wrinkled her nose in disgust and shoved Toad out of her way, ignoring his cry as she walked over to the car.
"Hey, where are you guys going?" Lance asked. Gambit ignored Lance and opened the trunk. "Hello, somebody wanna tell me what's going on around here?"
Pietro walked up to him. "We're leaving," he said.
"Hey, cool! Another trip!" said Fred. "Good thing we're already packed,"
"No, Fred, I mean WE'RE leaving," said Pietro. "Me and Wanda. My father called Gambit this morning and told him to pick us up. He said he wants us to meet the newest member of the team,"
"And what about us?" asked Lance. "I thought we were all on the same team here,"
"Let's just say that the team's been restructured a bit," said Gambit. "The stakes have gotten much bigger and we can't afford to take any risks,"
"So? That doesn't mean we can't still help out," said Toad.
"Sorry, Toad," said Pietro. "Right now my father needs people he can rely on not to disappoint him, and you guys don't quite measure up,"
"What'dya mean 'don't measure up?" asked Lance. "Like you've given us anything to measure up to. You've been worthless as a leader!" He turned to Gambit. "And I guess you're just gonna listen to whatever he says just because he's your boss' son!"
"Hey kid, you had your chance, and you blew it. What else can I say?" said Gambit unapologetically.
"Fine!" said Lance. "I'll be glad once you're gone! Screw you and your father, Pietro!"
Pietro snarled and got right in Lance's face. "Don't you EVER say something like that about my father, Lance Alvers!" he hissed.
"Here's what I think of your father, Pietro!" snarled Lance, and drew his face to strike the mutant. Before he could swing, he felt Gambit grab his arm. "Give it a rest, kid. You wanted to be rid of Pietro, right? Now you're getting rid of your wish,"
"But what are we supposed to do?" asked Fred.
Gambit shrugged his shoulders. "You're all quite resourceful, I'm sure you'll manage to come up with something. And who knows, you might just fit in at Xavier's school after all," he said and got in the car. Pietro and Wanda followed suit.
Toad ran up to the side of the car. "Wanda! Wait!" he said desperately, but the car sped off. "Don't forget to write!" he called after it.
"Great," he sniffed. "There goes the woman of my dreams. And I didn't even get to say goodbye,"
Lance clenched his fist and the ground trembled. "Good riddance to 'em!" he said.
"Where do you suppose they're headed?" asked Fred.
"Who cares? I just hope they don't come back," said Lance, and stormed inside the house.
"I think they were headed for the airport," said Toad. "Wanna follow 'em?"
"I dunno. Lance is already pretty pissed off. He'd get even madder if we took his jeep. Besides, I don't know how to drive that thing. I think Lance is right. Just let them go," Fred said, and walked into the house, carrying the camping equipment with him.
Toad stood alone in the driveway by himself. He looked nervously at the jeep, trying to decide if what he was planning was really worth it. Finally he decided.
"I'm not gonna let her leave without saying goodbye first!" he said and hopped into the driver's seat of Lance's jeep. The keys were still in the ignition, and he started up the jeep and drove off after Gambit, hoping he didn't get pulled over along the way.
X
At the airport, Agent Simons stared at the solitary van parked in the lower level of the airport's parking garage. The doors on the back had been torn off, and there were a number of dents in the sides of the van, but they were unusual in that they appeared to have been made from the inside. He didn't need to look at the picture of Sabertooth he was holding to know that the oversized mutant had recently been an occupant of this vehicle.
Jan walked up beside him. "Sir, I just talked with the man who was working in the parking booth 2 days ago. He says he saw this van drive in here and head to the bottom level, and that it's been here untouched ever since,"
"I don't think anybody's going to be using this vehicle for a while," said Simons. "Did you find out anything else?"
"He gave me this," she said, and handed him a tape. "It's a copy of the garage's surveillance video from that day,"
Simons took the tape and walked back to his own vehicle, a minivan. He put the tape inside the van's VCR and began watching it. He saw the van pull through the gate and head down to the basement. It parked beside a black sedan, and a moment later the van's driver got out. Simons saw Sabertooth emerge from the back after kicking the doors open, carrying a woman in his arms. They walked over to the car, where another man, an older one, climbed out.
They appeared to engage in conversation for a moment, and then the man pulled out some kind of needle and stuck it in the woman's arms. As he did so, Simons could see him waving one hand in front of the woman's face. When she came too, she seemed to recognize him. They said a few words and then the older man and the woman walked off towards the concourse elevator. Simons saw the shorter of the remaining men get in the car and drive it off, and then the tape stopped.
"Did we get a good view of that older guy?" he asked.
"Not really, sir," said Jan. "It would take hours for a computer to extrapolate a face from that footage. But I think it's safe to say he's a mutant and he can control people's minds. You saw how friendly she was to him when she woke up,"
"I think you're right about that," said Simons. "But if we don't have a clear picture of him it could take forever to figure out he is,"
"Well sir, we do know one thing," said Jan. "Our kidnappers were here and now our victim's gotten on a plane somewhere. We should check around inside and see what we can find,"
X
A couple hours later, Simons and Jan walked back to their van. They had talked with numerous individuals in the airport who said they had seen the woman and the older man at some point in the day. After talking with security, they had managed to get both a description of the older mutant as well as an image from their cameras.
Jan ran a check on the mutant on their records, as Simons drove the van back to their office. "This mutant isn't showing up anywhere in our records," she said.
"That's probably because our records mostly consist of what people have told us," said Simons. "It would be nice if those government clowns would actually give us the budget we need to get a good profiling system on these mutants,"
"Sir, there is somebody who does have a very extensive set of mutant records at his disposal," said Jan.
"You mean Professor Xavier, of course," said Simons. "You recall that I asked him to share his records with us, and he wasn't exactly forthcoming,"
"I remember, sir," said Jan. "He said that his "students'" parents had trusted him to keep their children's records confidential, and he wasn't about to betray that trust,"
"I suppose we might be able to convince him to help us out with this," said Simons. "Since it involves a crime like this. Of course, I'm sure my boss won't like it when he hears I'm asking mutants for help,"
"We could just subpoena his records, sir," said Jan. "He'd respect a court order, even if he doesn't respect us,"
"You may be right," said Simons, starting to doubt some of his earlier beliefs that mutants were as harmless as he had first thought them to be.
X
She saw an image in front of her in a standing full-length mirror. But what she saw could not possibly be her. Could not possibly be human.
The mirror showed a figure secured to a bed that had a roughly human shape, but from there any human resemblance ceased. The figure had only the slightest hint of facial features, and it was glowing iridescent blue. The familiar curves normally present in a human female were barely visible. Electra gazed at the figure and slowly realized that she was looking at herself.
Electra opened her mouth to scream, but the only sound that came out was a strange electric whine, like the sound of feedback from a microphone. What the hell's happened to me, she thought to herself.
X
Magneto watched Electra regain consciousness and winced as she screamed. He waved his hand and the restraints loosened themselves and the table tilted backwards. He walked up to her prone form.
"Hello, my Livewire. How do you feel?" he asked her.
Electra opened her mouth again and strained to bring clarity to her voice, "Wh.Whh.What ..have you done to me? Why are you calling me that" Her voice was raspy and had an electric quality, and sounded like she was speaking into a loudspeaker.
"You have been reborn, Electra, and therefore I am giving you your new name," said Magneto. "I have given you a gift beyond all gifts. You are one of us, a mutant!"
"W.Why have you done this?"
"To awaken your true potential! You can be so much more now, do so much more!"
Electra slowly sat up and ran a hand across her chest. Her body felt alien to her touch. She could feel no skin at all on her chest. She placed a hand where her breasts should have been and felt only a slight protrusion from her chest. Pressing harder, she recoiled as she felt her hand actually pass into her own body.
"What's happened to my body!" she asked angrily.
"Your body is no more," explained Magneto. "My procedure has destroyed it and left you with a form of pure energy. I know you are very angry and confused right now, but I assure you, things will be better for you this way,"
"How the hell could they possibly be better for me?" Electra shouted, her electric voice filling up the entire room. "I'm not even human any more! How can I possibly live like this?" She anger gave her a surge of strength and she leapt off the table, ignoring the residual pain.
Magneto took a step backwards. "This procedure has given you incredible new powers to go along with your new body," he said. "You are now a being of pure energy. You can control and harness electricity in ways that men like Einstein and Tesla never even imagined! Think of what you can do with these abilities! I can teach you to harness them, if you'll let me,"
The words "pure energy" sent Electra over the edge. She collapsed to her knees and wailed in fury as Magneto's words ripped the last shreds of her humanity away from her.
Magneto gestured to Colossus, who brought a wide cylindrical machine forward and set it on the ground near Electra.
Magneto spoke to her again. "I don't want to rush you, I know you need time to reflect on this. Take this time to rest and recover your strength. When you're ready, I'll teach you what you need to know,"
Colossus activated the machine. It lit up with a hum, and Electra felt herself being pulled towards it as the capacitor sucked her inside of it. It shook as it absorbed her and then went silent, leaving nothing where the mutant had just been.
X
At the Institute, Xavier wheeled towards the kitchen, his disturbing dream still hanging on his mind. As he made his way through the hall, he saw Jean Gray walk out of the bathroom.
"Good morning, Jean," he greeted her.
"Morning, Professor," she said, then noticed the slight look of concern on his face.
"Professor, is everything all right?"
"I'm nor sure, Jean. Did you have any kind of strange dreams or visions last night?"
Jean thought for a moment, then said, "No, Professor, nothing out of the ordinary. Did you see something last night?"
"I don't know," Xavier said nervously. "I sensed something disturbing last night, as if somebody were crying out in great agony. I couldn't get anything more,"
Jean looked worried. Usually when the Professor sensed trouble, he was right about it. "Maybe we should check Cerebro out after breakfast to see if it's detected any new mutant signatures" she said.
"Cerebro would have alerted us by now if it had detected anything," said Xavier. "We'll have to wait until,"
"Until you see something else," Jean said.
"Exactly," said Xavier, and they both continued on to the kitchen.
X
On the outskirts of Bayville, three tents were set up around a small campfire. Inside one of them, Lance Alvers sat up, rubbed the sun out of his eyes, and yawned. It was good to get out of the boarding house and away from Pietro for a change, even if it did mean sleeping on hard ground.
He opened the flap of his tent and walked outside to find Fred trying to start a fire for breakfast. The large mutant was rubbing two small trees together, trying to get some sparks.
"Geez, Freddy, how long have you been trying to get a fire going?" asked Lance.
"Um, about an hour," said Fred, shrugging his shoulders.
"And is there any chance we'll be having breakfast before it gets dark today?"
"Hey, give 'im a break, Lance," said Toad. "You're starting to sound like Pietro. Besides, there's plenty of food around, if you know where to look,"
Toad lifted up a rock from the ground and saw a number of bugs crawling around underneath it. "Jackpot!" he said, and scooped them up with his tongue in one swoop.
"Ugh," groaned Lance, turning green. "I think I just lost my appetite,"
After a few more minutes, Fred succeeded in starting a fire, and soon the three members of the Brotherhood were eating a hearty breakfast of eggs, pancakes and bacon.
"Ya gotta admit," said Lance. "This sure beats sitting around having Pietro yell at us all the time," he said.
"I'll say," said Fred, chewing on a piece of bacon. "If we were at home, we'd be cooking HIM breakfast and licking up the crumbs,"
"Too bad Wanda didn't want to come along," said Toad. "She woulda had a good time, ya know? Sittin' around the fire, sleeping out under the stars, all that romantic stuff,"
"Give it a rest, Toad," said Lance. "She's never gonna fall for you, not when she has more fun blowing you up,"
"Hey, you've never seen how attractive I can be," Toad said. "I just have to try a little harder, that's all!"
Lance chortled. Toad was nothing if not persistent at his efforts to get Wanda to like him.
The mutants finished their breakfast and began to break camp. After a while they were packed and headed back to town in Lance's jeep.
X
As the three mutants drove up to the boarding house, they saw a car in the driveway.
"Wonder who could be visiting the house?" asked Toad as they got out of the jeep.
His question was answered a second later when Gambit walked out. Wanda and Pietro followed right behind him, each carrying a pair of suitcases.
"Sweetums! We're back!" said Toad as he sidled up beside Wanda. "Did you miss us?"
Wanda wrinkled her nose in disgust and shoved Toad out of her way, ignoring his cry as she walked over to the car.
"Hey, where are you guys going?" Lance asked. Gambit ignored Lance and opened the trunk. "Hello, somebody wanna tell me what's going on around here?"
Pietro walked up to him. "We're leaving," he said.
"Hey, cool! Another trip!" said Fred. "Good thing we're already packed,"
"No, Fred, I mean WE'RE leaving," said Pietro. "Me and Wanda. My father called Gambit this morning and told him to pick us up. He said he wants us to meet the newest member of the team,"
"And what about us?" asked Lance. "I thought we were all on the same team here,"
"Let's just say that the team's been restructured a bit," said Gambit. "The stakes have gotten much bigger and we can't afford to take any risks,"
"So? That doesn't mean we can't still help out," said Toad.
"Sorry, Toad," said Pietro. "Right now my father needs people he can rely on not to disappoint him, and you guys don't quite measure up,"
"What'dya mean 'don't measure up?" asked Lance. "Like you've given us anything to measure up to. You've been worthless as a leader!" He turned to Gambit. "And I guess you're just gonna listen to whatever he says just because he's your boss' son!"
"Hey kid, you had your chance, and you blew it. What else can I say?" said Gambit unapologetically.
"Fine!" said Lance. "I'll be glad once you're gone! Screw you and your father, Pietro!"
Pietro snarled and got right in Lance's face. "Don't you EVER say something like that about my father, Lance Alvers!" he hissed.
"Here's what I think of your father, Pietro!" snarled Lance, and drew his face to strike the mutant. Before he could swing, he felt Gambit grab his arm. "Give it a rest, kid. You wanted to be rid of Pietro, right? Now you're getting rid of your wish,"
"But what are we supposed to do?" asked Fred.
Gambit shrugged his shoulders. "You're all quite resourceful, I'm sure you'll manage to come up with something. And who knows, you might just fit in at Xavier's school after all," he said and got in the car. Pietro and Wanda followed suit.
Toad ran up to the side of the car. "Wanda! Wait!" he said desperately, but the car sped off. "Don't forget to write!" he called after it.
"Great," he sniffed. "There goes the woman of my dreams. And I didn't even get to say goodbye,"
Lance clenched his fist and the ground trembled. "Good riddance to 'em!" he said.
"Where do you suppose they're headed?" asked Fred.
"Who cares? I just hope they don't come back," said Lance, and stormed inside the house.
"I think they were headed for the airport," said Toad. "Wanna follow 'em?"
"I dunno. Lance is already pretty pissed off. He'd get even madder if we took his jeep. Besides, I don't know how to drive that thing. I think Lance is right. Just let them go," Fred said, and walked into the house, carrying the camping equipment with him.
Toad stood alone in the driveway by himself. He looked nervously at the jeep, trying to decide if what he was planning was really worth it. Finally he decided.
"I'm not gonna let her leave without saying goodbye first!" he said and hopped into the driver's seat of Lance's jeep. The keys were still in the ignition, and he started up the jeep and drove off after Gambit, hoping he didn't get pulled over along the way.
X
At the airport, Agent Simons stared at the solitary van parked in the lower level of the airport's parking garage. The doors on the back had been torn off, and there were a number of dents in the sides of the van, but they were unusual in that they appeared to have been made from the inside. He didn't need to look at the picture of Sabertooth he was holding to know that the oversized mutant had recently been an occupant of this vehicle.
Jan walked up beside him. "Sir, I just talked with the man who was working in the parking booth 2 days ago. He says he saw this van drive in here and head to the bottom level, and that it's been here untouched ever since,"
"I don't think anybody's going to be using this vehicle for a while," said Simons. "Did you find out anything else?"
"He gave me this," she said, and handed him a tape. "It's a copy of the garage's surveillance video from that day,"
Simons took the tape and walked back to his own vehicle, a minivan. He put the tape inside the van's VCR and began watching it. He saw the van pull through the gate and head down to the basement. It parked beside a black sedan, and a moment later the van's driver got out. Simons saw Sabertooth emerge from the back after kicking the doors open, carrying a woman in his arms. They walked over to the car, where another man, an older one, climbed out.
They appeared to engage in conversation for a moment, and then the man pulled out some kind of needle and stuck it in the woman's arms. As he did so, Simons could see him waving one hand in front of the woman's face. When she came too, she seemed to recognize him. They said a few words and then the older man and the woman walked off towards the concourse elevator. Simons saw the shorter of the remaining men get in the car and drive it off, and then the tape stopped.
"Did we get a good view of that older guy?" he asked.
"Not really, sir," said Jan. "It would take hours for a computer to extrapolate a face from that footage. But I think it's safe to say he's a mutant and he can control people's minds. You saw how friendly she was to him when she woke up,"
"I think you're right about that," said Simons. "But if we don't have a clear picture of him it could take forever to figure out he is,"
"Well sir, we do know one thing," said Jan. "Our kidnappers were here and now our victim's gotten on a plane somewhere. We should check around inside and see what we can find,"
X
A couple hours later, Simons and Jan walked back to their van. They had talked with numerous individuals in the airport who said they had seen the woman and the older man at some point in the day. After talking with security, they had managed to get both a description of the older mutant as well as an image from their cameras.
Jan ran a check on the mutant on their records, as Simons drove the van back to their office. "This mutant isn't showing up anywhere in our records," she said.
"That's probably because our records mostly consist of what people have told us," said Simons. "It would be nice if those government clowns would actually give us the budget we need to get a good profiling system on these mutants,"
"Sir, there is somebody who does have a very extensive set of mutant records at his disposal," said Jan.
"You mean Professor Xavier, of course," said Simons. "You recall that I asked him to share his records with us, and he wasn't exactly forthcoming,"
"I remember, sir," said Jan. "He said that his "students'" parents had trusted him to keep their children's records confidential, and he wasn't about to betray that trust,"
"I suppose we might be able to convince him to help us out with this," said Simons. "Since it involves a crime like this. Of course, I'm sure my boss won't like it when he hears I'm asking mutants for help,"
"We could just subpoena his records, sir," said Jan. "He'd respect a court order, even if he doesn't respect us,"
"You may be right," said Simons, starting to doubt some of his earlier beliefs that mutants were as harmless as he had first thought them to be.
X