Despite Magneto's objections that a 'mere human' wasn't going to be of much help, Arcade was brought along after Kitty reminded them all how dangerous he'd been in the Danger Room (out of the poor kid's earshot, of course) and he was convinced to come along for some gaming experience. Forge loaded up some of his more offensive technology, and the mutants fired up the Blackbird, heading southwest.
Towards Chicago.
After a long talk between Remy, Logan and Eric, they'd agreed their was no home to go up against such attackers, and especially not in the present state, in a head-to-head conflict. Thus, their best bet was locate the enemies base and rescue their friends, retreat, and go from there. And of course, in order to do that, they needed to find the enemies base. Which mean they needed information.
Since most of Magneto's contacts had gone silent in recent months, and Remy was unable to contact his own in the guild, that left only Logan as their main contact. Which meant they had to contact Fury. SHIELD would, hopefully, be able to bring them up do date.
"That's assuming they're not responsible for this," added Remy, playing devil's advocate.
"Patch and I may have our issues..." replied Logan "But this isn't one of 'em. And you two may be terrorists..." and here he looked long at Eric, who didn't flinch under his glare. "But again, he wouldn't attack the mansion, he'd have no way of knowing you were there. No... someone else is behind all this."
"SHIELD it is then," stated Eric. Logan nodded, and they took the controls to head towards one of SHIELDs secret fortresses to ask for their aid. Logan just hoped they'd be in time to help the kids.
In the back, Kitty was helping Arcade piece together everything that had been happening. Surprisingly, the geeky gamester was more than willing to help the mutants after he'd heard their side of the story involving the Sentinel robot disaster. Plus, he figured after what he'd heard had really happened at the mansion during the party, the he kinda owed them for nearly torching and/or blasting them to bits.
Thus, the two of them and Forge were sorting through his gear, searching for anything useful they could use, what could be carried and by who. Turned out most of Forge's weapons (of which there were already very few) were of the non-lethal variety. Knockout gas and the like. Much as Kitty hated it, she suddenly wished they had something like a bazooka or (while she was daydreaming) why not a tank? Or even, hell, their own sentinel robot?
It'd be nice, but between two unempowered mutant adults, three unempowered mutant kids and a normal human kid, they were going to have to take on an organization that had managed to overtake the entire Institute in a manner of minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I remember you," stated X23, drawing out a wicked blade from behind her back and holding it out before her, glancing at Wanda idly as she pointed it at Jamie. "You're Multiple."
"Uh yeah... hi..." he said weakly, shivering as he tried to hide behind Wanda. X23 growled.
"What're you doing here? You're not with them," she said, giving the unconscious soldier a vicious kick to the head. "You're their prey, same as I am..." she added, slicing off Jamie's handcuffs in two quick, slashing motions, then re-sheathing her weapon. "Who are these men? Why're they hunting us?"
"Because we're all mutants," replied Wanda. She was sick of being frightened by a little girl half her size. "And they likely want to round us all up into nice little death camps and murder us all, got it kid?"
"I'm not a kid," said X23 gruffly, marching past Jamie and Wanda. "Follow me..."
"Why? Where're we going?" asked Jamie. He and Wanda followed after her, as she led them through the seemingly trackless woods.
"To find help... I assume all of you X-Men were captured?" she asked, glancing back at Jamie as she sliced a tree trunk that was in her way. She barely even glanced at it, her blade moving with lightning quickness.
"Uh... yeah... though I think Kitty and Mr. Logan got out... and also that strange white-haired guy..."
"My father?" asked Wanda suddenly. "Magneto?"
"I... dunno..."
"Must've been... father's a survivor... he wouldn't be captured."
"Then we will reunite with the others," replied X23. "But first I need to find where they are... and you two will come with me."
"Listen little girl," started Wanda, only to stop abruptly as she found a rather sharp blade pressed up against her neck, right under her chin.
"No, you listen. I am in need of an X-man to prove to these people I am an ally... I don't need you... but I would not wish to traumatize the child by killing you either and leaving your body here to rot. So you will both follow me, now," she said. Without another word, X23 sheathed her knife and stalked off again. Wanda and Jamie, reluctantly, followed her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It is truly a pity you have only managed to reclaim one of my subjects," remarked Colonel Wraith as he ran his hands along the glass container which held Sabertooth, admiring his once-ally, now-prisoner. "And not even the successful one."
"We'll have him soon enough," replied Trask, making his way forward to join Wraith. "But I don't think you can argue that our operation was a failure... look at all we've accomplished," he added with an impressive sweep of the captured mutants, trapped behind their glass. By special design, it allowed them all to hear and see Trask, Wraith, and anyone inside the circular room, but they could not be heard, nor communicate in any way with their fellows, unless Trask or Wraith activate the speaker in an individual booth and allowed them to use the intercom system in the room. "Besides, we have captured the key to make our dreams a reality. A world without mutants..." and here he pointed at the key in question.
Professor Charles Xavier.
"Got something you want to say, mutie scum?" asked Trask with a sneer. With a smirk, he tapped the intercom below Charles, allowing him finally to be heard.
"Whatever it is you want from me, Mr. Trask, leave the others out of this..."
"Ah, but what I want from you does involve them... it involves all you filthy mutants. It will finally allow me to remove this menace from society and ensure the continuation of the human race!" said Trask, with a zealous light in his eyes.
"You are the one... the ones," he amended, glancing at Wraith. "Who have removed our powers, aren't you? This is not just coincidence."
"Correct," stated Wraith, watching Charles with the curiosity of a cat watching a mouse through his strange, green goggles.
"It was a simple matter really," stated Trask, moving his way back towards the far end of the room as he switched off Charles comm. link. He then switched on the main screen, illuminating the room, showing the image of a small, repulsive little mutant boy. Visible mutant. Green, scaly reptilian skin covered his body, and his eyes were big and black, like a iguana's. He was, all in all, a rather disgusting looking creature. Still, the X-Men and not a few of the Brotherhood felt immediate sympathy.
The image zoomed back, showing the mutant child sleeping in a red chamber much like their own. Surrounding it were a large number of strange rubies, inside the glass chamber. And surrounding that was a large amount of electronic machinery.
"This rather repulsive child my colleague," said Trask, motioning to Wraith. "Found a short while ago, has the ironic mutant power of canceling out other mutant's powers, leeching them out of the body like the poison they are. Using some schematic designs we found on the crashed asteroid in the Antarctic... an abandoned mutant base, we believe... we found these crystals and build the machine you see here. It has sufficiently amplified the little leech's power so that it now covers the entire world. With this anti-mutant zone in effect, you freaks are now powerless to stop us from securing our proper position at the top of the planetary food chain."
"Trask..." hissed Wraith. "Bring my subject... I may as well begin on him now that I have the time. Once Wolverine is here we can deal with him."
"Fine," grumbled Trask, turning back to the main screen. "Master Mold?"
"Yes?" came the cold, computerized voice of the machine, as a semi-human electronic face appeared on the screen, with coldly glowing gold eyes.
"Release the cage with Sabertooth... take him to the labs with Colonel Wraith..."
"At once," replied the computer. Two machine-soldiers immediately filed in, as the glass casing slid away and Sabertooth was dragged out and away by them. Wraith trailed along behind them, smiling his evil smile.
"Good work Master Mold... what news from the others?"
"Group A: Success, twenty captured, zero casualties... Group B: Failure... Group C: Failure... Group D: Failure..." it stated in cold tones.
"Enough! Why so many failures? The mutants are escaping?" shouted Trask.
"Human error was involved. Your soldiers are not performing at optimal efficiency, Creator," stated Master Mold in its mechanical voice.
Trask grumbled impatiently. "Fine, replace them with the mark II sentinels. I want those damn mutants!"
"Understood, creator," replied Master Mold, as its face vanished from the view screen and Trask stormed out of the room, leaving the mutants alone in the cold, glass chambers, awaiting a fate they were sure was likely worse than death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors Notes:
Quite the raggedy rescue team... think they can do it? Ah, the evil human architects have been revealed, as well as how they've pulled off a world wide mutant nullification. I know its semi-stereotypical for the villain to reveal their nefarious scheme, but what the hell, right? And even better, my own personal version of Master Mold. Since he's not yet been introduced into X-Men Evolution, I've taken some creative license to spice him up a little bit. Just to make it more interesting, and you see why shortly. This story hasn't even come close to an end, so sit tight and prepare for more good XME.
Rogue14: Yes yes I'm working as fast as I can!
Ilyana Rasputin: I'll settle for some Pringles and a coke. But chapters will be coming very rapidly for the next week or so.
Faith Darkholme: Glad you like. Yes that was Mystique actually, as for who wants to meet Warren, you'll see soon enough.
Todd Fan: Of course Forge is here. How else do you think they're going to pull off a rescue? Hehe.
*B: I suppose I didn't consider that. For the purposes of plot continuity, let's just say he didn't notice the molted feathers, same as Kurt didn't notice the fur, 'cause they were both too sleepy that morning. But glad you like it, and definitely re-read, you will love all the foreshadowing now that you understand it.
Unknown Source: Come on, tell me you can't picture Arcade and Forge playing those silly video games on a gamecube? As for Trask and Wraith's plans, you will soon see. As will they. Like Pachino said, nothing is as it seems.
ChaosCat: 'fraid no more Betsy, unless she shows up in Evolution before I finish the story. Maybe one little scene at the end. But for the most part anyone you saw in chapter XV who has not appeared previously in the Evolution show will not be appearing further in the story.
Emerald Lightning Goddess: Thanks, but I've got my own. *sucks on the lollipop, cuddling his own Rogue, Tabitha and Mystique plushies*
Cryptic Identity: Sorry, sounded like criticism, and its something I don't take terribly well. Trask and Wraith. To be honest Wraith came to mind midway through, so I stuck him in, 'cause I want to include as many Evo characters as possible, even if briefly. Actually though, from what I've read Arcade was a human villain in the comics too, no powers. He was known for building elaborate death-traps and working as an assassin.
Tallicat: Glad you like it. More to come, of course