Talons

Chapter 14

Isidro clearly remembered everything up until he discovered he had a bona-fide alien implant in his brain. At that point, everything went all pear-shaped. He heavily sat down next to the "gentle devil", and he just couldn't focus on anything that was said. Someone did surgery on him and put alien goo in his skull, and try as he might, he just couldn't wrap his brain around the concept.

Someone get Mulder and Sculley, he thought. I've got a doozy for them.

His head felt light, and once the gentle devil left the bed, he laid down for a while. The big doctor guy, who Isidro just swore he'd seen on professional wrestling, asked him if he wanted to have some peace and quiet somewhere, maybe a private room, or at least draw a curtain and dim the lights. Yes, he thought, that'd be nice. Just to lay there for a little bit and try to untangle everything.

He was in the so-called "mutant training facility", along with two aliens that he hadn't seen yet, and he'd been used in someone else's evil schemes of global domination. Wonderful.

Anything else you just want to spring on me today, God? I'm so numb at this point that you could tell me my cousin is actually a secret agent cyborg from the future and it'd make perfect sense.

He laid there for a while, in a confused haze, with the lights mercifully dim and a curtain drawn around his bed. The doctor and the guy with the red shades occasionally argued over something. There were other voices that must have come over a monitor. And then he heard a terrible, agonizing, utterly inhuman scream.

He flipped off of the bed and tore aside the curtain so hard he was surprised it didn't rip. The scream was coming through the monitor, which showed most of his "hosts" in some kind of control room, watching something off screen with horror, their hands to their ears. The scream quickly cut in volume, but it would ring in Isidro's ears for a very long time.

"What're they doing?" he demanded, looking from doctor to patient.

"We don't know, Isidro," Hank answered, shaking his head in shock. "Everything was going well, and then...."

On screen, Professor Xavier, the only one who seemed unaffected by the noise, suddenly gasped and leaned forward, shaking and panting for breath.

"May God forgive me," he whispered in a shaking voice. "I snapped him."

Isidro listened to the rest of Xavier's explanation, feeling a cold and hollow space grow in his chest. So this was why the professor didn't want to just go rooting around in someone's mind. The deeper he went, the more dangerous it got. A thought flitted through his head, that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to give him carte blanch to go in and grab anything he could find.

No, he thought. We've got to find these bastards, and I'm the only one who knows about them. I'm the only lead they've got. It's got to stop here.

Now they were talking about scavenged alien scouts, teleporting, wormholes, and power ratings, not much of which made any sense to him. He never was a science fiction buff.

"Has anyone besides myself taken note of how many blackouts we've had recently?" the professor finished, his voice harsh.

"What did Con Ed say about the blackouts? Did they even mention they sent people out?" Scott asked.

"According to dispatch, the outages have been caused by downed trees, and they've all been resolved," Xavier answered. "I am finding the truth of that statement more and more in doubt. The fallen trees could have been staged as a cover up, or the crews themselves taken and someone else returned the all clear."

Scott turned to Hank. "I'm getting up now, and you can't stop me."

For once, Hank didn't argue with him. He didn't look happy, but he didn't argue. Instead, he removed the oxygen mask and turned to one of the medicine cabinets.

"If you're going to do this, you'll need to be at full power for the next few hours," Hank said. "Will you accept a mild stimulant?"

Scott's face tugged into a half-smile as he removed diagnostic patches from his chest. "So long as it isn't laced with a stronger sedative."

"You do realize that you'll feel like hell after this wears off?"

"I'll consider it a blessing. It means I'm still alive and conscious."

"And then you'll be right back in this bed for an extended stay?"

"Just give me the damn shot, Hank."

"You're going to the switching station, aren't you?" Isidro asked.

"Just as soon as we get the jet warmed up," Scott said.

"What can I do?"

Scott swung his legs over the side of his bed and stopped, looking back at Isidro. Or, at least, it seemed he was looking at him. With that visor on, it was hard to tell, short of head angle. Behind him, Dr. McCoy was readying a shot.

"Can you handle an assault rifle?" Scott asked. "We've inherited a few lately, and we've got a lot of kids to guard."

Everyone who could come on the flight, did. Kurt was out of action for the time being, and Rogue had no hope of using her powers against battlesuits, aliens, or battlesuited aliens. The two of them stayed behind with Xavier, but they were in the hanger to see off the Storm, Logan, Iceman, and Colossus as they prepped the Blackbird for takeoff. Just before they left, Cyclops walked briskly in, followed closely by Henry McCoy. Storm watched as their team leader, who she knew to still be injured, jogged up the ramp onto the Blackbird.

"Hank, why are you letting him do this?" she hissed into Hank's ear. "You forbade Kurt to use his powers, and his injuries aren't life threatening!"

"Currently, Scott's aren't life-threatening, either," Hank replied evenly, looking past Storm to the Blackbird's ramp. "His abilities do not specifically aggravate his injuries, whereas Kurt's do. And, finally, you'll need his power in this kind of fight. Against the heavy armor you'll be running into, Kurt is less than useful."

After Scott disappeared into the jet, Hank turned to her and his voice dropped. "What you'll need to watch him for is pulmonary distress. The stimulant combination I gave will only remove pain and fatigue. Especially under battle conditions, he's not likely to notice if he gets into trouble."

"I've got a small oxygen tank stowed away," Storm told him. "I just hate the idea of him putting himself in harm's way like this." She paused, and then her voice was almost too soft to be heard. "Is he really that eager to follow after Jean?"

"Not consciously," Hank replied sadly.

Storm sighed, then embraced Hank as best she could, though her arms didn't quite reach all the way around him. She looked behind him, to where Kurt was speaking with the professor. "I'll take care of Scott. You take care of Kurt. Deal?"

"It's a deal."

She raced up the ramp, which retracted behind her. Those remaining behind quickly left the hanger as the engines started to whine. Rogue crossed her arms and smiled ruefully at Kurt.

"Welcome to the home guard, sugar," she told him. "Now y'all get to see just how much fun you been missin' out on." She looked to Professor Xavier and sighed. "If y'all excuse me, I get to pull monitor duty for the duration."

"Not alone, Rogue," Xavier told her. "Wait just a moment, please."

Rogue stopped, cocking her head. "I thought Kurt was gonna be helpin' Hank."

"He is."

A nearby set of elevator doors opened and Isidro Delgado stepped out. He was wearing one of the X-men's armored uniforms, though it didn't fit quite right, and had an assault rifle slung over one shoulder. He smiled sheepishly as he walked toward them.

"It's a little stiff," he admitted, flexing an elbow. "I feel like I'm breaking in a new set of bike leathers."

:

The closest Con Edison switching station was barely a few minutes journey by Blackbird. Having taken Lady Bird Johnson's "American Beautification" program to heart in the 60s, what was by nature an eyesore was nestled into some foothills, invisible from the road and far from human habitation. At one time, heavy equipment had passed this way, carrying the necessary components during construction. Now only a single access road led in and out, a one-way, gravel path. Xavier and his students were fortunate enough to find a satellite over the area, but when they hacked into the feed, the live pictures showed them nothing of any importance. Everything looked completely normal, completely deserted. In this isolated area, it would have been child's play to create a hidden base.

Whether Xavier's hunch was right or wrong, all would know soon. Ororo looked back at the faces around her, the men of her extended family. Iceman was a bit nervous, tapping his heel against the floor. He had not bothered to "ice up" yet, probably to save energy. Colossus, also, was unarmored, but that may have been for purely practical reasons. With his powers active, he would be too big to comfortably sit in his seat. To her relief, his ugly bruises had faded to yellow in record time.

Logan and Cyclops, for once, had the same stoic, focused look, which she found chilling. She never wanted to see that kind of "do your worst, I don't care" expression on Scott's face.

Scott, I loved Jean too, she thought. She was a sister to me. She wouldn't want you to become so reckless. Let Logan fulfill that role. He can recover, you won't.

"Look sharp," Cyclops ordered as he slowed the plane. "Ten seconds."

Iceman and Colossus armored themselves. Storm devoted her attention to the array of sensors she had in front of her. No radar contacts, no locks... and no power emanations.

"Cyclops, I'm not getting any readings at all," Storm told him. "I think we're being jammed. There should be enough power going through that switching station to light up the county, and we're reading zero."

"Why does that not surprise me," Cyclops grumbled.

They flew over the hills, then over the switching station, at a very low altitude and banked for a turn. The station seemed to be empty, which was to be expected. Only rarely did a worker come out to perform maintenance or repairs. When Storm tried to get some ground density readings, she only came up with the default level, even underneath the switching station, which had to be heavily compacted. Someone was definitely hiding something.

Cyclops came back around at a different angle, cutting across their original path. As they flew over the foothills again, a huge, amorphous red field sprang up out of nowhere, pulsing and sparking as it wavered, reaching far up above their flight path. How the hell did they miss that before? Did it activate after they flew by, or was it a truly two-dimensional object, only accessible by one side? Cyclops knew it was too late to reverse course, and the field was too high to climb over on such short notice. Instead he banked hard left, their only hope of avoidance.

He would have made it, too, if the field didn't suddenly expand and engulf them all.

To be continued….