Chapter Seven: A Father's Legacy
When I woke, my first thought was of Chloe. Where was she? Was she all right? My eyes snapped open and I tried to stand up. I couldn't. My wrists and ankles were stuck. I looked down; I was being held to a table by two pairs of cold steel manacles.
"Doctor, this one's awake," came a voice.
"Ah, good," came another.
I looked over to where the voices had come from. A short, bearded man in a white lab coat was making his way across the room towards me. Three or four soldiers stood nearby, their hands resting on their weapons, watching me closely. There were two or three other tables, identical to the one I was lying on, but they appeared to be unoccupied.
"Where am I?" I demanded.
One of the soldiers pointed his gun at me and snapped, "Keep quiet, freak!"
The man in the white coat had reached my table, and was fiddling about with a couple of objects sitting on a wheeled trolley by my feet. I stretched out with my senses, trying to find my friends. I could sense mutants, fairly close by – I concentrated on trying to find out who they were.
Shapeshifter was one; I knew his mind well enough to be able to identify him. There were three close to him; I assumed those were three of the six of us who had set out. Pushing out further, I could sense two more, then a third, then a fourth, but I couldn't tell who they were.
I returned my attention to the room I was in. I had to be inside the military base somewhere. This room looked like a laboratory of some kind. Where was Chloe? Was she elsewhere in the building? Had they been torturing her? If I ever found out who was responsible for causing her so much pain, I would kill them.
"Ah," the scientist said, flicking through a file. "You are the Rosiçky child, yes?"
"What?"
"You are Davor Rosiçky's son?"
"Yes. Who are you? What am I doing here?"
He ignored me and continued to read from the file. I looked at the name tag on his lab coat. Dr Elias Van Gaarde. The name meant nothing to me. Why was he asking about my father?
"Your father was the geneticist who implanted your mutations, yes?" he asked.
"Yes. Where are my friends? What have you done with them?"
"I will ask the questions. Where is your father now?"
"Dead."
"Dead? How?"
"I killed him."
He raised his eyebrows, "I see. I worked with your father for many years in the field of mutant genetics. He and I, and our other research associate were three of the greatest minds ever to study mutation in detail."
I said nothing. I had no love for my father. My mother had died in childbirth and the only thing Davor had ever done for me was provide half of my DNA. Obsessed by his research, he'd taken me as a new-born and subjected me to his experimentation. Now I was something I was never meant to be. It was this knowledge that had sunk me into a well of deep depression, and led me to consider ending my pointless, ruined life. Chloe had pulled me out of it, the only person in the world who could have done so; her love had sealed the wounds in my heart, and given me a new lease of life.
The scientist, Van Gaarde, had reached the end of the file, and set it down on the table next to mine
"You wished to know what was going on here," he said. "Very well, I will tell you. Colonel Lutowski has hired me to conduct research into mutant biology, with the goal of creating weapons specifically designed to kill mutants, without harming humans. You are now one of my test subjects."
"Is that what you were doing to my girlfriend?" I demanded angrily. "Testing one of your weapons on her? Is that why she was screaming?"
"Oh, you are in love with that one, are you?" he said. "Interesting."
I allowed my anger to rise, "If you're the one responsible, I swear I will not rest until I've torn you limb from limb and – "
He ignored me again, and turned to the soldiers, "Bring in the female subject, the one I was working on before. We will test the two of them together."
Two of the soldiers left the room and Van Gaarde turned back to face me, "I'm afraid you will not get the chance to enact your revenge on me. You and your girlfriend – and your other mutant friends – will be dead. I must tell you, though, it will not be a quick or peaceful death. The pain will be excruciating. You must hope that my research progresses quickly and we can develop our weapons with no major delays. That way you will die sooner."
"You bastard," I spat. "I swear I'll kill you for what you did to her!"
"Save your threats. They are meaningless. Ah, here she is."
I looked over to the door. Chloe, her face pale, barely conscious, was being half-dragged, half-carried into the laboratory by two of the soldiers. Her eyes were almost closed and she was not making any conscious movements, but she must have been awake, since I sensed her emotions changing when she saw me: relief that I was alive, but despair that I too had been captured. She was powerless to resist as the two soldiers dropped her on to one of the other tables, and put her wrists and ankles into the restraints. Van Gaarde picked up an object from the trolley, and moved over towards her. The object was a small cylinder, about ten inches long, and two inches in diameter, with an opening at one end. I didn't know what it was, but Chloe clearly recognised it, as she began to struggle weakly against her bindings, and moan, "No…"
"This is our first prototype weapon," Van Gaarde explained to me. "It emits a special type of ultra violet radiation that attacks certain cells in a mutant's body and causes them extreme pain. It is entirely harmless to humans. As yet it does not cause any lasting damage to the target – that development is the purpose of these tests. Observe."
He pointed the device at Chloe, and activated it. I couldn't see any visible beam, but of course UV light wasn't visible. Chloe's body stiffened and she screamed, arching her back and trying to twist out of the path of the weapon.
"Turn it off!" I yelled. "Turn it off, you sick bastard!"
Van Gaarde would not. Chloe continued to writhe and shriek, until her body collapsed and she stopped moving. He clicked off the device and looked at his watch, "Subject lost consciousness due to pain after twelve seconds. Still not fast-acting enough. When she next awakes, we will try again."
I fought against my own restraints. If I could get a hand free, I could use my telekinesis, and Van Gaarde would be a dead man. Everything the Professor had ever told me about not harming humans had gone straight out of my mind. If I ever got the chance to kill this man, I would do it. And not quickly.
At that moment the door was opened, and a man looked in, "Dr Van Gaarde, the Colonel would like to see you."
"Very well. Take these two back to the holding cells. This one's a telekinetic, so keep your weapons on him at all times."
The scientist went to the door and left the room. One of the guards unfastened Chloe's restraints and lifted her inert body over his shoulder. Two of the others kept their guns trained on me, while the fourth undid my cuffs. I tried to raise my arm to throw them back, but my limbs were stiff and sore, and I couldn't move fast enough. I was grabbed and pushed towards the door. The man carrying Chloe led us off to the right and down a corridor, stopping at a door on the left. He punched a code into a keypad beside the door, and it slid open. Chloe was thrown inside, and I was pushed after her. As I hit the floor within, I heard the door sliding shut behind me.
"Neil! Are you OK?" came a voice.
My eyes adjusted to the dim light, and I saw Chris, leaning over me, helping me to my feet. Felicity was kneeling by Chloe's side, gently cradling her head, trying to get her to wake. There was a single bed in the corner; Marie was lying on her side, unconscious, and Bobby was hunched anxiously over her, sitting on the room's only chair. To the right was a door, lying open; I could see it lead to a small lavatory.
"Hey," I said, feeling a sore spot in my knee where I'd hit the floor. "They got all of us?"
Bobby nodded morosely, "They were all over us before we could do a thing. They must have known we were coming."
"It was Rat," I said. "He's working with them; don't ask me why. He must have smelled your approach."
"What about you?" he said.
"Guards caught me out in the forest."
"Couldn't you sense them?"
"They had dogs," I lied. "I can't sense the presence of animals."
I wasn't quite ready to let the rest of them know quite how badly I had lost control. Driven almost crazy by Chloe's suffering, I'd forgotten about everything else and gone in alone. But I didn't need to tell anyone that.
"That's why your telepathy was cut off, then," said Chris. "We didn't know where to go, and Rogue began to lose control of my power. We tried to hide, but we were found."
"What do they want with us?" Felicity asked. "Why haven't they just killed us?"
I sighed, "Because they want to conduct experiments on us, so they can develop weapons to kill mutants."
"Tell me you're joking," said Chris.
"I'm not. If we can't find a way out of here, all we've got to look forward to is suffering and seeing each other suffering, then death."
"Then might escape be a good idea?" said Felicity.
"It just might," said Chris. "I can't see how we're going to do it, though."
"Can't you change to liquid and get out?"
"No. The door's airtight."
"So how come we're breathing?"
He pointed above us, "Ventilation shaft. We can't escape that way either. It's too small to crawl through, and I can't flow upwards as a liquid."
"There must be a way," I said.
"Maybe the Professor will use Cerebro to find us, and send help," said Bobby.
"Send who? Cyclops without his visor? I wonder if…"
"If what?" Chris asked.
"Nah, forget it," I said. "I had an idea, but it was stupid."
"It's better than no idea at all, which is what we have right now. Tell us."
"Oh, I just thought…I just thought Magneto might help us. If there was some way we could contact him."
Bobby shook his head, "Why would he save us? We're his enemies."
"Yes, but if anyone will want to stop the experimentation going on here, it's him. It's a threat to every mutant on the planet."
"But how can we let him know what's happening?"
"I have no idea. I can't telepath messages over anything greater than a mile or so. I doubt he's that close."
"Maybe the Professor will contact him for us."
"I don't think we can rely on any outside help," said Chris. "We have to come up with a plan to do this ourselves."
"I can't see it," said Bobby. "We need to wait for the military to make a mistake."
"They've already made one," I said.
"What?"
"Putting all of us in the same room. This way we can plan our escape together."
"We still have to find Wolverine and Storm," Felicity reminded me.
"You're right. Once I regain my strength, I'll reach out and try to sense where they are."
Felicity spoke up, "Can't we steal a radio and try to contact Magneto?"
"I dunno, what's his phone number?" Chris asked sarcastically.
She shrugged, then turned to look at the door, "Hey, Neil, can't you use your power to open this door?"
I went over to kneel by the door, and had a look at the interior of the lock.
"There's an electronic circuit holding it closed," I said. "I can't make any sense out of it."
"Hey, Felicity," said Chris. "Can you fire an electric pulse at the lock, maybe short circuit it and open the door?"
"That might work. It might also screw up the door so it can never be opened."
"There's got to be a way out of here!" Chris said angrily, standing up and pacing round the room. "There's got to be something we haven't thought of yet, something they've overlooked!"
"Once we get out of the room," I said. "Things start to look a lot better. We can use our powers to defeat any soldiers that we come up against. Rat might be a problem, but I think we can handle him. Once we find Storm and Wolverine, we can find an exit and get out of here. With any luck, they haven't found the jet. If they have, we find another way to get home."
"But we're still faced with the problem of getting out of the room," said Bobby. "And what about these anti-mutant weapons that are being developed? Shouldn't we destroy them?"
"Yeah…" I sighed. "You're right…how's Marie, by the way?"
"She's out cold. I think she's all right. They hit her over the head pretty hard, according to Chris."
"Chloe's the one I'm worried about," I said. "They've been torturing her with one of these 'weapons'. I don't know how she's holding up."
"She seems OK," said Felicity. "I'm no doctor, but I don't think she's been injured."
She continued to nurse Chloe's head in her lap, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Chris was still pacing the room, angrily staring at the door, desperately trying to think of a way out. Bobby was leaning over the bed, carefully pushing Marie's hair away from her eyes. Suddenly a thought came to me. Marie…
"I've got it!" I exclaimed suddenly, causing them to look up in surprise.
"What? An escape plan?" said Felicity excitedly.
"I think so."
"Just tell us what to do," said Chris.
I turned to face Bobby, "Am I right in thinking that Rogue once absorbed Magneto's powers?"
"Yes. She didn't want to; he made her do it."
"And that means there is an imprint of Magneto left on her mind?"
"Yes…where are you going with this?"
"This is largely guesswork, but I reckon if I can use my power to get inside Marie's head, I can use Magneto's imprint to communicate with him."
"Would that work?"
"It should do. It's like he's left behind a tiny part of himself inside Rogue. Magneto has his own telepathic abilities, fairly weak, but I should be able to contact him."
"When do we start?"
"As soon as Marie wakes up, assuming she's willing to do this."
Bobby held up a hand, "Hang on, I see a problem with that plan. In order to get inside her mind, you've got to make physical contact with her body, right?"
"Yeah…"
"If you make physical contact with Marie, her powers will activate and she'll start to absorb yours. If it takes too long, you'll be killed."
"Damn. That is a problem. I wonder if there's a way around it."
"Can't you touch her with your gloves, or something?" said Felicity.
"No. Our bodies have to come into contact. Wait a minute…I've got an idea. Bobby, can you create a thin layer of ice between us, thin enough that we can still make contact? That should slow down her power."
"I can try."
"OK. We'll just have to wait until she wakes up."
It was another half hour before Marie regained consciousness. During that time I was worried that Van Gaarde would appear and drag us out to his laboratory again, having finished his meeting with Lutowski, but the door did not open. I wasn't sure what to make of the scientist's claims that he'd worked with my father. From what the Professor had told me, Davor Rosiçky had worked alone. Van Gaarde had mentioned himself, Rosiçky and one other. I wondered who that was.
It also seemed as if Lutowski was fiercely determined to swiftly end this war against mutants. I was chilled by the thought that he was developing weapons specially designed to kill us. I'd experienced hatred and rejection as a mutant, but I'd never imagined there would be people out there who wanted to utterly exterminate me and my kind. It was fair to say that some mutants – people like Mindstorm, Toad, and Magneto – gave us a bad reputation, but to create weapons to wipe out an entire race of people…it was inhuman. Some mutants – most of us, in fact – were nothing more than innocent children, who couldn't help the fact that they'd been born different. I was beginning to understand why Magneto felt the way he did. People like Lutowski, Van Gaarde or Stryker would never be swayed by the Professor's overtures of peace, and were doing everything they could to kill us – what could we do but fight to protect ourselves?
Marie awoke with a start, her hand instinctively jerking out to grab the nearest person, who was Bobby. He was still wearing his gloves, so she didn't come into contact with his skin, and he put his other gloved hand gently on her shoulder, calming her, "It's OK, you're OK…"
"Where are we?"
"Still in the base. We've been captured, all of us."
She sat up and looked around the room. Chris and Felicity were sitting in the corner together, talking in low tones. I was kneeling beside Chloe, probing her mind, sensing with relief that she was going to wake up soon.
"What are we going to do?" Marie asked urgently.
"We have a plan," I told her. "I'm going to use my power to go inside your mind and contact Magneto."
"Why him?"
"Because he's the only one who can help us. I think I can convince him that it's in his best interest to stop what's going on in this base. Whether or not he'll free us at the same time, I don't know, but it's the only thing we can do. That is, if you're OK with it."
"Sounds all right. But will it work? Can you contact Magneto from inside my head?"
"I think so. From what I know about telepathy – the Professor's been giving me lessons, as you know – it should work."
"I'll do it. Now?"
"Whenever you're ready. Bobby?"
He nodded, "Go for it."
Marie swung her legs off the bed, and knelt down on the floor beside me. I moved my hand towards her face, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Bobby, concentrating hard. He fired a thin jet of ice through the air – it could only be mere nanometres in thickness – which froze in place just as my hand came into contact with Marie's skin. Taking a deep breath, I established a telepathic link, and projected my consciousness into her mind. I could sense her power activating, more slowly than normal due to the ice, and I knew I had to work fast. Inside Marie's mind, I pushed out my senses to locate the imprint of Magneto. I was in luck. It wasn't far off. Travelling through the ethereal, I moved close to it, and could sense his presence, very faintly. It was now or never. This had to work.
Magneto? I transmitted.
My heart jumped with relief as he responded in surprise, Who is that?
Oculus. We need your help.
If you think you can bargain for my aid because you saved my life, think again. I have already paid that debt.
Just hear me out. Your interests are at stake here too.
I'm listening.
The military unit who attacked you have captured us. They're conducting research into weapons that will kill mutants, and they're using us as test subjects. If we don't stop them, they'll be able to kill every mutant on the planet.
Typical humans. I suppose Charles Xavier is just sitting back and letting them do this. You see now that humans and mutants cannot coexist?
I could feel Marie's power spreading; my body was experiencing pain…I couldn't actually feel the pain, since my mind was not in my body, but I could sense it was there. I knew I had mere seconds left before it became too much, and she killed me.
Maybe you're right, I said, Listen, I can't talk for long. Will you help us?
Yes. I will. But there is one thing you must know –
Sorry. I have to go!
I pulled out of Marie's mind, and jerked my hand away from her. Both of us gasped with shock, and I fell backwards on the floor. My body was racked with fatigue and lingering vestiges of pain, and I realised just how close I must have come to death. A pair of hands gently cradled my head, and I looked up into Chloe's face.
"Hey," I said weakly. "When did you wake up?"
"A moment ago," she smiled brightly. "Chris was just telling me about your brilliant plan."
I blinked, "Yeah. You seem oddly cheerful."
"I'm just relieved that I'm not in that lab any more, having those sick devices tested on me. Compared to that, this is heaven."
Pushing my senses towards her, I got a glimpse of her feelings, and realised just how much pain she had been going through. I felt a fresh surge of anger towards Van Gaarde. He would have to die a thousand horribly painful deaths before I could forgive him for this.
"Did it work?" Chris was saying impatiently, moving over to sit beside us.
I nodded and spoke in a tired voice, "Yes. I got in touch with Magneto. He said he'd help us, but…"
"But what?"
"I don't know. I think he was going to tell me something important, but I had to break it off before Rogue's power destroyed me."
"So he's coming to help us?"
"That's what he said."
"Good," said Chris. "That's the main thing. Of course, we can't just sit here and wait to be rescued. We have to do everything we can to make it easier for him."
Marie looked at me, "I've absorbed your powers, Neil. I could telepath to Magneto myself now. There was no need for you to take that risk."
"I'm not so sure. I mean no offence, but I don't know if he'd have listened to anyone other than me. I did save his life, remember. He says he's settled that debt, but I sense that still feels an obligation to me."
"I guess the enemy of our enemy is our friend," said Chloe. "For now, anyway."
"Yeah," I said. "OK, here's our plan. Next time Van Gaarde comes along to take us out to play with his toys, we stage some surprise attack. Depending on who he takes, this attack could have various forms. With luck, it will coincide with Magneto's arrival, and we'll be able to get out of here."
"Amen to that," said Chris.
I could sense the general mood had lightened, and everyone was feeling a new sense of hope and optimism. Strange, really, to be relying on our arch-enemy to rescue us from certain pain and death, but it just proved what I had said earlier: Magneto wasn't all bad.
"Wow, I can read your mind," Marie was saying to Bobby. "Hey, you really do like me."
He grinned in response to her attempt at a joke, "Just as well I'm not having any dubious fantasies at the moment."
"Yes, just as well, for your own safety."
Both of them smiled, and instinctively drew together to share a kiss. At the last moment, they remembered it was impossible. They couldn't touch each other, and both of them broke away sadly. Chloe put her hands on my shoulders and tried to pull me towards her to kiss me. I shook my head. We couldn't openly kiss in front of Bobby and Marie; it would be too cruel, to let them see us doing what they so desperately wanted to do, but were unable to. Chloe understood, and nodded in response. Chris was sharing a joke with Felicity, and I noticed the way her eyes were looking at him, the way she smiled in response to his humour. I knew she liked him. I also knew exactly which girl Chris liked…
But that was none of my business. We had to find a way to escape. When the door next opened, when they came for us, we could act. For now, all we could do was wait, wait to be rescued by the enemy of our enemy. I hoped Magneto would hurry.
A/N: please review this story; I love getting feedback! This story seems to be getting far less reviews than its predecessor; strange, considering I don't think it's any worse. Comments on the characters and their relationships would be especially welcomed. Thanks!
