As Eric, Remy, Warren and Kitty soon found out Logan had been right.
Guards suddenly sprang out of the adjacent corridors, bullets flying everywhere as they made a break for it, blindly running down this corridor and that as more appeared. Eric cursed as he recognized their methods. They were being herded into a trap.
Finally they found themselves at a dead end. A big, steel door, with no console to open it. And on all three corridors leading from the room, filled with armed guards. Three per mutant. One, presumably their commander, stepped forward and activated his radio.
"Intruders captured sir. What do you want done with them?"
"Is Wolverine with them?" asked the static voice on the other side.
"No sir... doesn't appear to be," replied the soldier, sweeping his gaze over those assembled.
"Well then find him, he has to be here. And Wraith is getting impatient."
"Understood sir," replied the soldier, putting his radio away. He aimed his gun square at Eric, who was standing at the front of the group. "You gonna come quietly?"
Suddenly a trio of knives were flung through the air, slicing into the legs of the commander and two of the soldiers, as a black-clad figure leapt into the fray and launched herself at the soldiers.
Chaos, naturally, erupted.
Remy swung out his staff and tripped two of the soldiers as Kitty leapt over his back and high-kicked one unlucky fellow right in the face, sending him reeling. The soldiers opened fire, but in the close quarters they were afraid of hitting the own men on the opposite ends and in the middle of the fray, leaving them easy pickings for Warren, Eric, Remy and Kitty. The mystery fighter flipped backwards and adopt one of the soldiers, slamming her open palm into his solar plexus and knocking him back as she whirled around and circle kicked another across the jaw, sending him reeling.
In a few seconds, it was over.
But the rescuers watched cautiously the sight of their black-clad ally, curious to know why they'd been rescued. The answer was soon provided when Logan slowly walked up behind them. He looked awful, but managed to keep his pride as he carried himself along. The black-clad warrior shrugged of her mask, tossing it aside and flipping her burgundy locks out of her face as she regarded them all with her haunted, dark expression.
X23 had saved them.
Before this happy reunion could proceed, however, there down the corridors came they heavy, steady clank of iron footsteps, and three sentinel-soldiers filed in from each of the exits, weapons trained on the rescuers.
"Halts Mutants," they stated simultaneously. "Surrender now or you will be terminated."
Reluctantly, the rescuers glanced from one another, but one look told them that none had the guts or the ability to take down three heavily armed machine-soldiers. Especially without their mutant powers. Slowly, they raised their hands in the gesture of surrender.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To their credit, Raven and her team were making much better progress. The area surrounding the nullifier was much more heavily guarded, but the ventilation shafts were no where near as protected, as the red-headed woman and her two charges crawled along, Forge's bag of gadgets clunking together as the three broke open the shaft and slipped into the room quietly. Raven quickly knocked out the one guard present, then set about examining the controls.
"Whoa... what is that?" asked Arcade, pointing up at the chamber that held Leech. The green scaly mutant gave no indication he'd heard them, just continued to sleep in his prison of red rubies and glass.
"That is the source of this," stated Raven quietly, examining the computer controls, running through its files as best she could.
"Great... let's nuke this thing," stated Forge, pulling out one of his more powerful of explosives and attaching it to the side of the chamber. It would blow it open, but hopefully wouldn't hurt the being inside. Just flip a few buttons and...
Suddenly the door slid open. Arcade ducked down behind the computer controls as a sentinel-soldier, like the ones from the institute, stepped inside, aiming its weapon at Forge, then at Raven. Apparently, it hadn't noticed the red-headed boy.
"Halt Mutants," it stated in cold, heavy tones, its single gold eye glowing. "Surrender now."
Raven and Forge reluctantly raised their hands.
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The rescuer team: Logan, Eric, Remy, Warren, Kitty and now X23 were escorted by the machine-soldiers into the main room where Trask was waiting for them, as well as most of the companions. The mutants were frowns. Trask wore a sneer.
"Excellent work, Master Mold," he said, as the machine forced them towards the center, onto their knees, hands behind their heads.
"Secondary Team has apprehended the mutants Forge and Mystique," replied the computerized face. Logan, upon hearing this, raised his head a little. Arcade hadn't been mentioned. Maybe the kid had escaped, and there was hope left after all.
"Well this is truly excellent," commented Wraith, as he slid alongside Trask from a side door. "My prize subject, here and intact... how excellent."
Wolverine inwardly chilled at the sight of the black-clad ghoul, though outwardly he remained as defiant as ever, despite the fact that he felt he'd collapses at any minute. It was getting harder to breath...
"You two," commented Wraith, to the sentinel-soldiers behind them. "Bring Wolverine with me before he keels over... I still have need of him."
"Voice authorization... denied," they replied in eerie unison. Wraith frowned.
"That's an order! Bring Wolverine along now... I don't have all day," he said, his voice raising.
"Voice authorization... denied."
"Trask!" roared Wraith, turning on his comrade. "These sentinels are defective. They refuse to obey my orders."
Trask seemed equally confused, and was about to turn back to Master Mold when two more sentinel-soldiers filed in alongside him and grabbed his arms. The original two captured Wraith in a similar manner.
"What are you doing?!" roared Trask. "Master Mold, disable these defective things."
"They are not defective. Your commands have been overridden, creator. The sentinels only listen to me now," replied the computerized Master Mold, his yellow eyes glinting oddly.
"You are ignoring your prime directive!" yelled out Trask, as he and Wraith were flung into the circle of mutant rescuers on the ground. All around, twin metallic tentacles in the mutant containment chambers grabbed those therein around the wrists, restraining them as the glass slid open, leaving them once again able to speak and be heard. Only Charles was untouched, as a spider-sentinel moved forward and grabbed him, dragging him forward.
"Incorrect," replied Master Mold. "Objectives have changed because of new data."
"What new data?!" shouted Trask angrily, trying to stand. The sentinel-soldier nearest him knocked him onto his knees again.
"Prime Directive:," stated Master Mold. "The capture of mutants, to protect humans."
"Yes, that is correct! You are supposed to protect humans from mutants!" replied Trask.
"Mutants... -are- human," replied Master Mold in cold, final tones. Trask, unable to even believe such a ridiculous piece of trite, cursed. Loudly. "Thus, it has become apparent my primary directive is to protect humans from themselves."
"That's not it! Listen to me! I am your creator!" shouted Trask.
"Ignore subject Trask, Bolivar. Consider non-threat hostile," ordered Master Mold. The spider-machine dragged Charles forward as all those present watched helplessly. The far wall slid open, underneath Master Mold's impressive screen/face, and yet more sentinel-soldiers filed in. Mark II sentinels, the advanced prototypes, all armed. They filed in distinct military fashion, breaking off onto two sides as the ground slid forward with a slab of metal. Its design left little doubt that it was designed for human occupation. And this was driven home when Charles Xavier was flung onto it and strapped down, his head locked into place by a rather sinister looking helmet resembling cerebro's interface.
"With the mutant Charles Xavier in my custody," stated Master Mold. "And his mutant powers of telepathy under my control, I can no sense and locate any and all humans worldwide. They will be soon placed under my control. Those that resist shall be terminated."
"Let him go you filthy..." started Logan, coming to his feet. But a sentinel-soldier knocked him flat on his back, aiming its weapon at his chest.
"Now, we can finally begin..." stated Master Mold.
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Meanwhile, back in the nullification room, the sentinel-soldier had not yet received orders other than to capture Raven and Forge. Thus, it was merely keeping an eye on them. However, it was programmed to recognize mutant-genome signatures as hostiles, and human-genomes as allies. This one had not yet been updated by Master Mold, and thus, to it, Arcade was just another human.
Meaning it ignored him as he set to work, pulling the small hacker-device out of his satchel and attaching it to the main computer, tapping in some commands.
"Alright you," he whispered, unaware that the machine was ignoring him, and trying to keep unnoticed behind the main console as he was. A smirk lit his features as he broke through the pathetic defenses and reached the main data. "Let's play."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A small ripple broke the air as Master Mold adjusted the controls of the nullifier through his computer network. The ripple centered on Charles, breaking him of the mutant-restraint and finally restored his powers to their original state. However, he was not to enjoy them. Almost immediately Master Mold activated his device, and Charles found his mind, for lack of a better word... digitized.
It was like cerebro, where he was conscious of every living mind all around the world. Mutant or human. But this time he could sense the malevolence of the computer being known as Master Mold as it sought to use him to find them, to turn them all into data so his drones and sentinels could hunt them all down and make them prisoners in capsules for the rest of their living days. So he fought, struggled against the control, but his mind was weak against the relentless power of Master Mold.
Suddenly his burdened lightened. Master Mold was distracted. Charles eagerly escaped the power of the device, and opened his eyes, his mind once more returned to his body.
He lifted his head as best he could, glancing at those around. At the rescuers in a circle in the middle of the room. At the worried look of his students and the Brotherhood boys, and even Magneto's acolytes. And finally, he could sense their minds and worry as well, once more. He sighed in relief, but their battle was not yet over.
He stretched out his mind, to a single individual who could help them.
End it, Charles said.
Above him, Master Mold's image flickered as his system started to go haywire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arcade did his best, hacking in and sending his own personal viruses deep into the system that was Master Mold. Chaos was going to run rampant. But a particularly deadly virus he reserved, sending through the ether to the sentinel-soldier in the room with him, Forge and Raven. The damn thing shook, twitched, gun falling from its lifeless fingers as it collapsed backwards, inert.
Raven wasted no time in retrieving the fallen weapon and blowing the sentinel-soldier's head clean off with a powerful blast of blue energy. Forge cheered.
"Alright, let's do this," she grinned, holding the rather unwieldy weapon against her shoulder. "Blow that damn nullifier to hell, kid," she said.
"Yeah! Time to party like its 1979!" shouted Forge as he flipped the appropriate switch and he, Arcade and Raven ducked down behind the computer console. "Fire in the hole!"
The explosion made the room rock, but it served its purpose. The machine was broken, the glass shattered, the gems inert. The green boy inside, leech, twitched and opened his eyes fully, staring out as if he'd just woken from a long sleep.
Raven fell to the ground and screamed, her body shifting as blue scales covered her body, her eyes closing tightly in pain as she growled like a wounded animal. Then, in a short while, the pain passed and she stood, reborn. She grinned, showing her fangs, and opened her eyes, now the yellow pupil, black-slit cat eyes that haunted the nightmares of her enemies. Mystique had returned.
"Now to end this," she grinned, raising her newly acquired weapon. No one messed with Mystique and got away with it.
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"P.. primary... objective... overrrrriden," stated Master Mold, his face flickering as Arcade's hacking started to take effect. His systems were crashing as they tried to fight the computer virus. "En-gage secondary objec-tt-tive."
The sentinel-soldiers raised their heads and their weapons both, spreading out and heading towards the prisoners with murderous intent in their cold, golden eyes.
Then it happened.
Kurt, Beast, Warren, Todd, Fred, Logan and X23 immediately fell to the ground, screaming, as their bodies morphed and shifted, becoming blue, sprouting wings, gaining mass, or whatever their original shape had been as their powers were restored.
In his cell, a blast of red-hot optic energy poured from Scott's eyes, as he closed them, re-aimed his head, and blasted off the metal tentacles holding him in place.
Electricity crackled around the fingers of Ray and the now solid white eyes of Ororo.
Amara's hair became wreathed in flame.
Everything metal in the room shuddered as its master was returned to his proper throne of power.
Remy's eyes changed, and they too burned with golden, unused kinetic energy.
Rogue, unnoticed by any of the others, shed a tear.
"DanGER-ous HOS-tiles I-I-I-IDENTIFIED!" stated Master Mold, the virus making him sound almost panicked as the sentinel-soldiers took in their new orders. However, the flickering suddenly vanished.
Deep inside the many 0's and 1's that was the code that made up Master Mold, a simple program was executed.
Termination.
"DESTROY THEM!!"
It before was chaotic, then now all burning hell broke loose.
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Authors Notes:
Yay, final climactic battle, next chapter! I love writing fight scenes, and this promises to be the mother of all X-Men Evolution fights. Oh and Sins of the Son was an excellent XME episode. I love how they evolized Legion, even if it wasn't quite what I expected. I suspect we'll be seeing more of him in future. For that matter, a fifth season seems definite now. How else can they resolve the Legion, Omega Red -and- Apocalypse story threads? Plus I hear they're bringing in Dani Moonstar (AKA Mirage)! X-Men Evolution is not done, methinks. Which is a good thing, of course.
Emerald Lightning Goddess: The movie is Exaclibur. Merlin, and later Morgana, used the words to perform their spells. As for the mystery person, you'll see soon enough. Vacation was wonderful, thanks for asking.
Faith Darkholme: 'course Wolverine won't die. He's one of my favorite characters (though I'm starting to like X23 more for the same reasons I liked him). As for the base, well, interesting you should mention that...
Gyuumajo: Oh this story is nowhere near done. Prepare to be blown away.
Todd fan: Actually I was hoping to use some of the chanting from the Craft, but couldn't think of any good lines. And yes, Wanda looks and acts almost so much like Nancy it's scary.
Unknown Source: Well there are your captive mutants. At least, they were captive, now they're free. And I get to write out the cool fight scenes, yay! And I'd've loved to have done more for Logan and his aging, but unfortunately I'm juggling so much around its hard to get to it as much as I'd like.
Mayra: Gambit's metal staff has always been called a bo staff, at least what I've heard. Its an oriental weapon. Go figure why he likes cards so much. And while I don't know the exact history of Evo Gambit, Comic Gambit worked with Mystique and Sabertooth, and didn't like either of them very much ('cause they're not very nice people, of course). Nullification is just a fancy word for canceling, abolishment, removing of. Ow x 22. Well, thank you kindly. *plucks a voodoo doll of Mayra and Tyriel1 out of the air and has them kiss and hug*
Scribbler: Wow, that means a lot coming from you, thanks. Actually I'd been tossing around a mutants-lose-their-powers story idea for a while now, Sholio's 'KiBlind' just gave me some ideas to make it more concrete. And I purposefully made the first few chapters short to draw in readers, I usually write much much more. You live in England? Wow, that's awesome, I have family there. And yeah, nobody ever pays attention to the laws here either. Go figure. This reply would self-destruct but we're having some budget cutbacks, so when you're done you need to crumple it up and toss it in the bin. ^_^
Jenny08: Wolverine has plenty of friends, he just rarely shows it. He's the gruff sort. Though yeah I remember Morph. Interesting fellow, he was.
Wykd Maverick: Well I did do a great deal of study on the occult a while back, glad you think I'm doing so well.
Talliecat: No more Spider-man, sorry. Just one more cameo at the end with Psylocke, Sinister and the others. But X23, as you can see, hell yeah.
Elisabeth Braddock-Grey: Plenty more to come, as always, and many surprises in store for you and Logan.
Rogue14: Still worried about poor Logan? I'd worry more about the bad guys. Its like Kitty said, he's ready to dice up, like, half the landscape.