Chapter 5 Skullduggery

[A/N There is some discussion of Nazi philosophy in this chapter between the Red Skull and Mystique].

Mystique shivered. Before Talia had been born, she had been investigating the one known as En Sabah Nur. First, she had seen him as a potential ally who would help her to move out from Magneto's shadow. Then, she had seen a counterweight to whatever force had bred her son with Magneto's daughter. As she had learned more about Sinister, she thought that Apocalypse might be able to fight him.

She had contacted Mesmero. She had even offered to help to free Apocalypse. She had allowed Mesmero to "initiate" her into Apocalypse's circle by forming a mental link between her and his master that would allow her to have mental contact directly with Apocalypse.

But Mesmero had waited, and her misgivings grew. Upon seeing Sinister in the flesh when he had taken her granddaughter, she decided that anyone who could have been involved in making Sinister who he was could not be trusted. (She had discovered by this time that Sinister's origin had something to do with Apocalypse).

When Mesmero approached her mentally, she had just blocked him out. When Apocalypse had directly tried to contact her, she had sung verses in her head until he went away. So Mesmero used Rogue to absorb her powers in order to open the door instead. And Mystique discovered that Mesmero had been working for Sinister all along. So helping to free Apocalypse would never have brought a counterweight to Sinister, it would only have strengthened him.

But now she was weak, and Apocalypse was at full strength.

She heard his command, and felt compelled to obey it.

~Bring him to me.~

~Who?~

~The Red Skull. Nazism is a foolish but useful ideology. I will use him to achieve my ends.~

~How?~

~Quiet, slave. My plans do not concern you.~

For his part, the Skull was chatting with "Zimalover" on the internet. Apparently he believed that this was a code name for Baron Zemo II. Valkyrie was standing guard at the barred room in which Mystique was being held. It had nullifiers that prevented the shapeshifter from using her power, but Valkyrie was apparently immune to the effect.

Valkyrie's powers appeared to be great strength and immunity to harm. She was amusing herself by drinking deadly poisons, and she had also shown Mystique a huge number of fresh bullet wounds in her abdomen. They were healing slowly, but they had clotted quickly and appeared to cause no pain.

Meanwhile, in the cell next to her languished Dr. Chamberlain [A/N original character]. He had been visited every fifteen minutes or so by a large black man who was obviously a native African. Mystique was unsurprised at the fact that the Skull was willing to use people from what he would have considered "inferior races" as allies. After all, the Germans had allied with the Japanese when it was in their interests.

Suddenly the Skull spoke to the black man.

"So, Upload, do you have what we need?"

"I have more. I will continue typing the information until it fades again, and then I will go back for more."

"How long?"

"In twenty-four hours I will have enough information for Baron Zemo to rebuild Dr. Chamberlain's device. Once that is done, it should be relatively simple to incorporate the proper marker recognition into viruses or bacteria."

"Well then, go on typing, then."

Upload walked over to another computer terminal and began typing like mad.

"So," asked Mystique of the Red Skull, "what is he getting out of this?"

"Hmmm..." the Red Skull looked at her. "Do you know what I am working on?"

"From what I know of you, and from what I know of this man's work, you're working on race-specific bioweapons."

"Precisely. And this man here, Mbakama Leboko, is an advisor to the President of Galothswo [A/N made-up country]."

"Galothswo? Isn't that where the recent massacres of Luseths by Wuchukus [A/N fictional] occurred?"

"Exactly. But other African nations intervened, and the US, through the UN, threatened to send peacekeepers in to mediate, and so at least 75% of the Luseths survived."

"So you promised Mr. Mbakama [A/N in many African countries, the first name is the family name] here that you would let him use this technology to create a plague that would wipe the Luseths out once and for all?"

"Exactly. People who don't understand race don't understand that different races can never coexist in the same space. At least, not unless the inferior ones know their place. And race isn't just macro-race. It extends to nation and tribe. And so, Africans of one tribe, clan, nation, or whatever, will kill those of other tribes, nations, whatever, unless the strongest ones can wipe out their competitors once and for all. I have no desire to take over Africa, or most of Asia aside from the Soviet Union - excuse me, the former Soviet Union. But I do want people of a similar mindset ruling there. The Aryans are of course the master race, but other continents may have races that are - superior to the others on that continent. In any case, the Wuchukus are definitely the ones I want ruling central Africa, and if they can take it, the rest of Africa as well. If not, I'll find other tribes."

"And do you want to rule the US?"

"Yes. It is primarily European, and besides they are a thorn in my side. If for no other reason, we must take America so that they cannot stop us from taking Europe."

"I suppose," Mystique indicated Upload, "that Mr. Mbakama here is a telepath of some sort?"

"He is able to duplicate another person's mind for a few minutes by touching them, which he calls 'uploading.' In that time he can write down whatever he knows until the 'upload' wears off, and then he can do it again and again, until he has written down what he needs."

"Any other allies?"

"Not that I care to show to you."

~Slave!~ Mystique winced at the mental attack.

~What, master?~

~Let Upload duplicate your mind. Then I will be able to command him.~

"Well, Mystique. I'm just about ready to use you as bait." laughed the Red Skull.

Mystique frowned. Her head was pounding. She had to escape two of the most evil people in the world, physically escape the Red Skull, and mentally escape from Apocalypse.