Chapter 2 Re-Education
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.
Kurt was not happy. Despite the large quantities of food he had been given to consume, he was very unnerved at all of the swastikas and other paraphernalia on the walls of the huge dining room. On the other side of the long table sat Kurt's father, grinning as wide as a man with a skull-like face could. Apparently he had altered his face toward the very end of the war, by ingesting certain toxins. Up to that point he had just been a man in a mask.
Next to Kurt were Valkyrie on one side and Exchange on the other. Exchange had dark brown hair, solidly black eyes, and was otherwise non-descript.
Suddenly a large black man walked in on the other side and began talking with the Red Skull.
"Who is zat?" asked Kurt.
"Upload," answered Exchange. "He is our ally in Africa. Our first ally, and if his people are strong enough, perhaps our only."
"A Nazi allying with a black man?"
"Is it any weirder than a Nazi allying with an Asiatic, as we did in World War II?" asked Valkyrie. "We are allied with the Wachukus of Galothswo because we feel that their philosophy mirrors ours."
Kurt looked at Valkyrie, and then glanced quickly at his father, fifty feet away. "The Vachukus? Aren't zey the vuns involved in that mass killing last year?"
"Yes. The Luseths. An inferior race destined for the trash bin," answered Exchange.
Kurt began to grow a little sick. The Red Skull beckoned to him to come over. Powerless to disobey, Kurt obeyed.
"Now, my son, I understand that you have been raised by" - the old Nazi spat - "Gypsies. I am afraid that they must have polluted your brain with all sorts of terrible ideas. I am sorry that I was not there to help to teach you right and wrong, superior and inferior, as I would have wished. But I will make up for it now."
"Actually, I vould prefer to be taken back to my friends."
"I am sure that you would. But you need to realize that you have been too corrupted to know what you really want. Ever since those treacherous Jews stole our theory of relativity and claimed it for their own to give to the Americans, Germans - real Germans - have had to hide who they are."
"Actually," retorted Kurt, "the nuclear bomb vas never used against Germany. You vere defeated prior to its use."
"Yes. Well." The Red Skull didn't like to admit it when his propaganda was exposed as lies. Truth be told, he believed that the Germans were defeated because of a number of factors, among them Hitler's incompetence and his absolute avarice when it came to power. But he was still convinced that Einstein had somehow cheated when coming up with the theory of relativity, and that the Axis had died because of some sort of treachery, not because the Allies were strong.
"The point is," he continued, "you should be proud of what you are. And you should realize that you are one of the kings of the Earth, practically a god! You are Deutsch. And you are superior. Nein, you are supreme!"
Kurt just stared.
"I don't expect you to realize this now, but after I am done schooling you, and explaining the true version of history, you will see the errors of your ways, repent, and become the man you were intended to be."
Lyssa had woken up, and Fury was arranging for her transport early the next day on Saturday. Scott and Hank were also there, gathering Hank's notes.
"Well," said Beast. Here are all my notes. I'll be leaving with Lyssa?"
"Yes," replied Nick Fury curtly.
"By the way," asked Beast, "where is Cain?"
Scott looked over to Hank. "I believe that he is taking Kitty driving. The third attempt at the test for her license is next Wednesday."
Cain was shocked. He had not thought that he could possibly know fear. He was, after all, going to be sent with Slab and Mystique on a covert mission to find Kurt as soon as the Professor had located the Red Skull. For some reason, though, riding in the driver's seat next to Kitty was far, far more intimidating.
"Oh shoot, it turned yellow. Hang on!"
"Wait... noooooooo!"
They made it through the intersection. Cain couldn't stop gasping. "That - that light turned yellow one block away..."
"..and yet I made it before it turned red, didn't I?" Kitty flashed a smile at him. As if her driving were not bad enough, it now appeared that Kitty had a major crush on him. And for some reason, he had never thought of himself as a teen icon. "Am I doing well?"
"Watch the road! Aaaaghhh!!!!!"
Kitty barely made it into the lane without having to phase the X-Van. "Cain? You look pale. Is that part of your power?"
"Uh... LOOK OUT! AGGGGHHH!"
Meanwhile, Lyssa Summers woke up. "Where... where am I?"
Scott looked at her. "You're at the Institute. You're okay."
Lyssa began calculating. She didn't want to take off her glasses and demolish this place. Sinister might still have a use for the X-Men. Granted, he had samples of their DNA, but growing a clone could be very time-consuming and it was overall much better to have the original around whenever possible.
"By the way, we put a necklace around you. Designed by the Beast and the Professor, made and improved by Forge. You can't use your powers at all, so don't try."
"I understand." It was not in Slayer's nature to be impetuous. She tended to analyze her situation and to try to make other people comfortable with her before she tried anything. Unless she had orders to the contrary, that is. She would rather wait patiently for opportunity than rush off half-cocked and fail.
"You are going to be taken to SHIELD HQ," interjected Nick Fury. "We need to do some tests and to interrogate you."
"Dissect me, you mean?" asked Slayer.
Fury's mouth dropped, and his eyebrows raised. "No, but we'll need some tissue samples and we will need to talk to you."
"Why?"
"Your boss is a very bad man. He will hurt a lot of people. We already know that he was involved in destroying a lot of land in South America. We need to know who he is working for, and what he plans to do for them. My money is on the Red Chinese."
"I think he is working for his own agenda," said Beast.
"Perhaps so, but he needs funding. Make a few supermutants for Red China, perhaps attack Taiwan with them, and then prepare the way for an invasion of the Soviet... excuse me, Russia. In return, he gets labs, money, et cetera."
"What will happen to Lyssa?" asked Scott. "At SHIELD, I mean?"
"She'll be educated. Don't you worry, she'll be treated fine."
"Turned into a weapon, like X23?" asked Beast.
"Maybe. Won't lie to you. We'll see."
Scott bristled at that. Lyssa was, after all, his clone. Almost his daughter. He began to know how Logan felt, the subject of experimentation he couldn't remember entirely and with a daughter who didn't know or trust him. He decided then and there that whatever happened, he was going to make certain that Lyssa was taught the finer points of being a good guy mutant.
Magneto and Logan were in Washington, checking up on some old contacts of Magneto's at the Latverian embassy.
"Do you want to talk to Doom?" asked the Ambassador. "I have a hotline, and he would like to talk to anyone who can help him to locate the Nazi filth that escaped from your country's maximum security facility."
"Actually," said Wolverine, "both Metal-head and I are resident aliens. This ain't our country, so don't blame us."
A few minutes later, a metal-masked face appeared on the screen. "Ah, Erik. And you... Logan, I believe? To what do I owe this great pleasure?"
Magneto made no small talk. "Vic, I don't like you wild-types, and I'll never pretend to like the way you treat your subjects, but you've always been decent to mutants per se, and I am too busy to argue with you about anything else. What do you know about the Red Skull?"
"What do you mean what do I know?"
"Any leads that will help us to find him."
"I have some contacts in the Mossad [A/N the Israeli version of the CIA or of the MI's, they are real]. They have, of course, expressed great interest in finding Nazi war criminals. They have tracked Baron Zemo to the general vicinity of Switzerland, but nothing more specific. My own agents have been scouring the area and they have some leads. If you'd like, you can meet up with a... an Adrian Zmoloka in Geneva. Password '5X-7143-872-XXCCFV.' He will respond with 'DC-567-8H2-GJKLDZS.' Do you have that?"
"Yes," replied Magneto, writing it down.
"Look for him at the Okenschaff Inn. He had blond hair with two black streaks, and sideburns almost to the corners of his lips."
"Thank you," replied Magneto.
Meanwhile, in China, Xian Chung looked at the panel in front of him. How was he to find the secrets the pyramid held? Moreover, how was he to find a way to make them useful?
He didn't have any appointments for a few days, and the Red Skull would contact him tomorrow. So he sat down and waited.