Pyro had been waiting for us once we entered the hotel suite.
We had sent him off on his own to learn what he could, and he had succeeded. While we had learned nothing at all, he had learned the one thing we wanted to know: how the organization- the Friends of Humanity- planned to put an end to mutants.
Eric had assumed it was going to be mass murders; I had assumed it would be fetal DNA manipulation. Sort of like 'nipping it in the bud', they would extract the X-gene from a child before it was born.
Neither guess was correct.
From several 'reliable' sources, Pyro had found that the leaders were developing a way to negate any mutant's powers or abilities completely. He wasn't exactly sure how they could do something like that, but if the FoH was successful, no mutant would be safe.
This is exactly why Eric decided that action must be taken. There was no guarantee that the X-men were in the city, Xavier could've made that mind contact with us through Cerebro. They were only a potential obstacle, and one that could be easily evaded.
We waited until nightfall to make our move.
^^^^^
During the day, there had been two visibly armed guards blocking the front doors. During the night, the real security came out. Two more armed guards and extra perimeter night watchmen.
Within half an hour, I had transformed into them all. When they came out of unconsciousness, they won't remember a thing. No matter, that would be hours from now, and we'll be long gone with everything we need by then.
I took care of the last few guards and stole a cell phone from one lying on the ground by my feet.
"Eric, are you ready?" I asked over the phone.
I could practically hear him smirk. "Of course, my dear." He replied.
A second later, all but the emergency lights of the building went out. Eric had just created a strong electromagnetic pulse that took out the main power grid and with it all the alarms and security cameras.
"Thanks, now where are you?" I asked.
"I'm on the roof with John, why don't you go on inside, and we'll meet with you somewhere in the middle?"
"Done and done." I said as I hung up. I held onto the cell phone and let myself inside.
How was I to know that what we were to find inside of that building would rock Eric and my relationship down to its core?
^^^^^
Most of the building looked like any other corporate organization. There was no real personality to the floor, only miles and miles of cubicles. I tried hacking into some of the computers, but most of them were completely empty, which could mean only one thing: they were just for show.
The Friends of Humanity was hiding something.
I gave up on the computers, and began to look for John and Eric. Past more cubicles, the office kitchen and water cooler, I heard sounds and saw moving shadows coming from one room, and let myself in.
It wasn't a room, it was a laboratory! It looked like something out of a movie, there were test tubes, experiments, rats in cages; Eric was going through the computer files while John was stealing paper documents from a file cabinet.
"Have you guys found anything yet?" I asked. They jumped when they heard my voice, and John whipped out his lighter, ready to attack.
"Hey, it's me, relax." I said as I changed back into my natural body, I had forgotten that I was wearing the security guard disguise.
John pocketed the lighter, "Sorry, my bad. All this breaking and entering stuff is still new to me, remember? Speaking of which, I've found some stuff."
He handed me a few of the papers he had found. I had started reading but I didn't get to finish.
"Put your hands over your head, now!" came a demanding voice. We all turned around. It was a real security guard this time, and he wasn't alone.
There were about a dozen of the FoH's top agents behind him, all leveling guns straight at us. I wasn't worried though.
Eric can stop bullets in midair, or steal the guns right out of their hands. These guns looked different, though. They looked...plastic. And if they were plastic, then the bullets were too! I looked to Eric, he had already noticed and came up with an idea.
"John, I have an idea, why don't you show them why we call you Pyro." Eric asked from behind me. I looked to my right. John had smiled dangerously as he pulled out his lighter, and within a second, there was a firewall between the agents and us.
"Ok, now what?" John asked. Eric looked out the window. "John, torch this building. If this is where they began to develop ideas for that negation of our powers, I don't want any record found, you understand me?"
John winked. "Yeah, I think I can manage that." He turned away from us and a fireball hovered over his palm. He threw it in a trashcan that ignited immediately.
This room would be ashes in minutes.
Eric continued, "We'll have to leave out that window." He walked towards it, and flew out into the cool night air. I followed, and felt the usual sense of dizziness I get whenever Eric uses his powers to hold me up.
Slowly, we lowered down to the ground. Pyro was still inside, making sure his flames consumed everything in the room.
From where we stood on the street, we could see into the office window, the room was glowing orange. He must've felt his mission was accomplished, because he came to the window.
Beside me, Eric held out his hand, and brought Pyro down from the building safely. Not a moment too soon, either.
*****
The FoH agents were very persistent; they retreated from Pyro's fire and came out the front doors just as John's feet touched cement.
"There they are, open fire!" gunshots rang out around us, and I grabbed John, shielding him with my body.
Eric had warped a magnetic field around us to act as a shield, but we still needed to escape the agents.
We turned to run, and I changed into a human to evade the eyes of the people who would certainly be awakened by all the noise.
"Should we go after them?" asked one of the agents. "No, don't bother."
After a lot of running, we made it back into the hotel suite. The doorman had not noticed our entrance due to a trashcan being torched right outside the front, and the security cameras experienced a momentary glitch and did not record for a few minutes.
We were effectively invisible.
Pyro went into the kitchen to grab a soda and a bag of chips. Eric turned on the news to see if Pyro's inferno did the trick.
"Once again I am outside the building that was recently purchased by the Friends of Humanity, the organization that is currently supporting Mutant Registration and has held numerous protests this week. As you can see, a massive fire had erupted tonight, and the fire department is having a difficult time putting it out. No word yet on what caused the blaze, but arson has not been ruled out."
The reporter went on to discuss various possible causes, but we were no longer interested.
Eric ruffled Pyro's hair and exclaimed, "Excellent work, my boy!"
Pyro smiled and seemed a little embarrassed by the sudden praise. "Hey, just doing what you told me." He said quietly.
I smiled at him, I may not know him as well as Eric did, but it did seem kind of out of character for him to be so modest.
I was sitting on the couch and the mirror caught my eye. I went over to look at my reflection.
I had changed on the street when we were running from the agents, I hadn't really put much thought into who I would become.
I just needed a human face, any one would have been fine, but I wasn't counting on becoming her.
Medium length blonde hair, fair skin, light blue eyes.
My own face stared back at me, my human face. I hadn't changed into my human form since...since I gave Eric the means to escape from jail.
I looked closer; I would be pretty if that face was truly mine.
I closed my eyes and changed back to my normal form.
When I opened them, they were still light blue. 'What the?'
I closed my eyes again and concentrated, harder this time. 'Blue scales, yellow eyes, red hair.'
I opened my eyes again, and nothing had changed.
I was still me, but not the me I wanted to see.
I closed my eyes, and concentrated as hard as I could. 'Blue scales, red hair, yellow eyes, now!' I commanded with my mind. I did not feel the transformation sweep over me like usual.
I felt nothing, except for rising panic in my chest. I opened my eyes and there was still no change. My eyes had started to tear up and my face was getting red.
Eric had come over, "Mystique, what's the matter?"
My head was swimming, and I felt weak. It was getting harder to breathe but I managed to say, "Eric...I can't...I can't change back."
We had sent him off on his own to learn what he could, and he had succeeded. While we had learned nothing at all, he had learned the one thing we wanted to know: how the organization- the Friends of Humanity- planned to put an end to mutants.
Eric had assumed it was going to be mass murders; I had assumed it would be fetal DNA manipulation. Sort of like 'nipping it in the bud', they would extract the X-gene from a child before it was born.
Neither guess was correct.
From several 'reliable' sources, Pyro had found that the leaders were developing a way to negate any mutant's powers or abilities completely. He wasn't exactly sure how they could do something like that, but if the FoH was successful, no mutant would be safe.
This is exactly why Eric decided that action must be taken. There was no guarantee that the X-men were in the city, Xavier could've made that mind contact with us through Cerebro. They were only a potential obstacle, and one that could be easily evaded.
We waited until nightfall to make our move.
^^^^^
During the day, there had been two visibly armed guards blocking the front doors. During the night, the real security came out. Two more armed guards and extra perimeter night watchmen.
Within half an hour, I had transformed into them all. When they came out of unconsciousness, they won't remember a thing. No matter, that would be hours from now, and we'll be long gone with everything we need by then.
I took care of the last few guards and stole a cell phone from one lying on the ground by my feet.
"Eric, are you ready?" I asked over the phone.
I could practically hear him smirk. "Of course, my dear." He replied.
A second later, all but the emergency lights of the building went out. Eric had just created a strong electromagnetic pulse that took out the main power grid and with it all the alarms and security cameras.
"Thanks, now where are you?" I asked.
"I'm on the roof with John, why don't you go on inside, and we'll meet with you somewhere in the middle?"
"Done and done." I said as I hung up. I held onto the cell phone and let myself inside.
How was I to know that what we were to find inside of that building would rock Eric and my relationship down to its core?
^^^^^
Most of the building looked like any other corporate organization. There was no real personality to the floor, only miles and miles of cubicles. I tried hacking into some of the computers, but most of them were completely empty, which could mean only one thing: they were just for show.
The Friends of Humanity was hiding something.
I gave up on the computers, and began to look for John and Eric. Past more cubicles, the office kitchen and water cooler, I heard sounds and saw moving shadows coming from one room, and let myself in.
It wasn't a room, it was a laboratory! It looked like something out of a movie, there were test tubes, experiments, rats in cages; Eric was going through the computer files while John was stealing paper documents from a file cabinet.
"Have you guys found anything yet?" I asked. They jumped when they heard my voice, and John whipped out his lighter, ready to attack.
"Hey, it's me, relax." I said as I changed back into my natural body, I had forgotten that I was wearing the security guard disguise.
John pocketed the lighter, "Sorry, my bad. All this breaking and entering stuff is still new to me, remember? Speaking of which, I've found some stuff."
He handed me a few of the papers he had found. I had started reading but I didn't get to finish.
"Put your hands over your head, now!" came a demanding voice. We all turned around. It was a real security guard this time, and he wasn't alone.
There were about a dozen of the FoH's top agents behind him, all leveling guns straight at us. I wasn't worried though.
Eric can stop bullets in midair, or steal the guns right out of their hands. These guns looked different, though. They looked...plastic. And if they were plastic, then the bullets were too! I looked to Eric, he had already noticed and came up with an idea.
"John, I have an idea, why don't you show them why we call you Pyro." Eric asked from behind me. I looked to my right. John had smiled dangerously as he pulled out his lighter, and within a second, there was a firewall between the agents and us.
"Ok, now what?" John asked. Eric looked out the window. "John, torch this building. If this is where they began to develop ideas for that negation of our powers, I don't want any record found, you understand me?"
John winked. "Yeah, I think I can manage that." He turned away from us and a fireball hovered over his palm. He threw it in a trashcan that ignited immediately.
This room would be ashes in minutes.
Eric continued, "We'll have to leave out that window." He walked towards it, and flew out into the cool night air. I followed, and felt the usual sense of dizziness I get whenever Eric uses his powers to hold me up.
Slowly, we lowered down to the ground. Pyro was still inside, making sure his flames consumed everything in the room.
From where we stood on the street, we could see into the office window, the room was glowing orange. He must've felt his mission was accomplished, because he came to the window.
Beside me, Eric held out his hand, and brought Pyro down from the building safely. Not a moment too soon, either.
*****
The FoH agents were very persistent; they retreated from Pyro's fire and came out the front doors just as John's feet touched cement.
"There they are, open fire!" gunshots rang out around us, and I grabbed John, shielding him with my body.
Eric had warped a magnetic field around us to act as a shield, but we still needed to escape the agents.
We turned to run, and I changed into a human to evade the eyes of the people who would certainly be awakened by all the noise.
"Should we go after them?" asked one of the agents. "No, don't bother."
After a lot of running, we made it back into the hotel suite. The doorman had not noticed our entrance due to a trashcan being torched right outside the front, and the security cameras experienced a momentary glitch and did not record for a few minutes.
We were effectively invisible.
Pyro went into the kitchen to grab a soda and a bag of chips. Eric turned on the news to see if Pyro's inferno did the trick.
"Once again I am outside the building that was recently purchased by the Friends of Humanity, the organization that is currently supporting Mutant Registration and has held numerous protests this week. As you can see, a massive fire had erupted tonight, and the fire department is having a difficult time putting it out. No word yet on what caused the blaze, but arson has not been ruled out."
The reporter went on to discuss various possible causes, but we were no longer interested.
Eric ruffled Pyro's hair and exclaimed, "Excellent work, my boy!"
Pyro smiled and seemed a little embarrassed by the sudden praise. "Hey, just doing what you told me." He said quietly.
I smiled at him, I may not know him as well as Eric did, but it did seem kind of out of character for him to be so modest.
I was sitting on the couch and the mirror caught my eye. I went over to look at my reflection.
I had changed on the street when we were running from the agents, I hadn't really put much thought into who I would become.
I just needed a human face, any one would have been fine, but I wasn't counting on becoming her.
Medium length blonde hair, fair skin, light blue eyes.
My own face stared back at me, my human face. I hadn't changed into my human form since...since I gave Eric the means to escape from jail.
I looked closer; I would be pretty if that face was truly mine.
I closed my eyes and changed back to my normal form.
When I opened them, they were still light blue. 'What the?'
I closed my eyes again and concentrated, harder this time. 'Blue scales, yellow eyes, red hair.'
I opened my eyes again, and nothing had changed.
I was still me, but not the me I wanted to see.
I closed my eyes, and concentrated as hard as I could. 'Blue scales, red hair, yellow eyes, now!' I commanded with my mind. I did not feel the transformation sweep over me like usual.
I felt nothing, except for rising panic in my chest. I opened my eyes and there was still no change. My eyes had started to tear up and my face was getting red.
Eric had come over, "Mystique, what's the matter?"
My head was swimming, and I felt weak. It was getting harder to breathe but I managed to say, "Eric...I can't...I can't change back."