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Chapter Three - The Aftermath and the Search

Warren Worthington sat in his bedroom in his penthouse at the top of Worthington Towers, holding a cell phone to his ear while a hired servant tended the wound on his wing.

"Argh... careful!"

"Sorry," Kate Pryde said. "I won't do it again..."

"It's okay, Pryde, just... just be careful." Kate wore a black dress that appeared very similar to a maid's dress, but her brown hair flowed freely past her shoulders. She wore a pair of surgical gloves and swabbed cotton doused with antiseptic on Warren's wing. He could tolerate the pain, but every so often, Kate would press the cotton a little too hard. Though not necessarily a maid, Kate was a pupil of Warren's. He preferred to help younger mutants on a more personal basis, rather than in groups as Magneto did, and so he had only three students with him, staying with him under the premise of being hired servants. Not that this stopped him from giving them orders. Kate was shy and reclusive, and tended to be overly apologetic. "She's still not answering?"

"No... it's not like her at all... she couldn't still be mad?"

"Maybe she turned it off," Kate suggested. ."

"Stryker's on TV again," Lance Alvers said, walking into the bedroom from the living room, where had had been watching CNN. Lance wore black dress pants, a white shirt, and a black vest, and his hair was longer than standard for a servant, but neat and combed. He was an even-tempered boy, though he had a tendency for irresponsibility and sometimes neglected the consequences of his actions. A childhood friend of Kate's, he was the only person she didn't act shy around.

"Let's see what he has to say." Warren turned on the plasma screen in his bedroom.

"I was attacked last night by those monsters. A good Christian helped me chase off the cowards, but they were there to kill me." Stryker was in Donegal, speaking to the anchor via satellite. "If I were wrong about them, why would they consider me a threat? They wanted to silence me, they knew I was right about them, and they won't stop with me. Every decent, honest person on this planet will be on their list and they won't stop until everyone is like them!"

"With all due respect, Father Stryker," the anchor countered, "It has been proven that anyone confirmed as a human cannot be turned into a mutant. You're one or the other."

"You can become one of them!" Stryker insisted. "Their weapons of choice are not their powers, they are hate, fear, deceit-"

"Father Stryker, it's perfectly logical that a radical group of mutants wanted to kill you out of frustration over these accusations-"

"You talk about them as if they understand logic! These are NOT men, they are monsters! They live only to spread evil-"

"I'm sorry, we're out of time. Father Stryker, thank you for being with us-"

"And now you're trying to silence me! You're one of them, aren't you?! YOU WON'T-" a commercial for cereal abruptly cut in. Warren turned the television off.

"It doesn't look like they're taking him seriously," Lance said.

"No, the liberals aren't, but the conservatives are eating it all up. Lynching in the South increased drastically when he started his campaign." Warren dialed again. "Come on, Callisto, don't be like this..."

"Maybe you should call Magneto and see if anything else has happened," Kate suggested.

"Yeah... I'd better just check in and worry about Callisto later... argh, I said to be careful!"

"...I'm sorry." Warren dialed another number. "Magneto... I talked to Ororo, but Callisto's not answering. Yeah. Ororo said one of her employees went missing, too. Thirty-two of them you say? Well... better than none. You told Raven already? Alright. I'm going to try Callisto again, I'll get back to you."

"Boss, mind if we knock off early tonight?"

"I do, Alvers. I want you two to stay here on and off duty until further notice. Call Drake and tell him the same." Warren walked up to the large window and looked at the city below. "Things are getting weird around here. This mutant hunter will be looking for you."

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Callisto stood in the town square of a city in Northern California with a megaphone and a group of several mutants, all chained to a statue of the city's founder as police barricades kept anti-mutant protestors away from them. The humans carried picket signs with such phrases as "MUTIE GET OUT" and "ALL MEN CREATED EQUAL- NOT MUTANTS" and the ever-popular "MUTANTS SUCK." Callisto knew that mutants had a legal right to non-aggressive demonstration and protection under the police, even if a few of the officers would rather remove those barricades.

"We don't want to dominate normal humans, we only want to be treated as equals!" Callisto said into the megaphone. Callisto looked the most normal out of all the mutant demonstrators, and even a few of the mutants had to admit that she was attractive. Her black hair flowed down to her back and she wore a blue headband, a white t-shirt one size too large for her with a brown vest over it, and a regular pair of jeans. Despite her beauty, Callisto's face was slightly disfigured; she had lost her right eye in a vicious fight, which she later replaced with a mechanical eye that couldn't allow her to see, but moved in tune with her remaining eye to give the impression of two normal eyes. A tiny, almost invisible scar ran down from her right eye towards her ear, stopping halfway. The day she lost her eye, the fight had been about acceptance. Ten years later, she was fighting the same battle. "We don't wish harm on anybody. All we ask for is equality, and we will not move from this spot until the city gives mutants equal rights."

"Hey, I got a power, too!" a human yelled. "I can see through lies!" He hurled a tomato at a young girl near Callisto. She was Torpid, one of the three survivors of the Morlock massacre. With Magneto's help, Callisto had found them, scared and confused, and took them in. She wiped the tomato off Torpid's shirt and lifted her up onto her shoulders.

"This little girl is one of the survivors of the massacre in the sewers. She lived there in fear of people who didn't understand her, who refused to understand her, and now her home is gone." Below them, the other two Morlock survivors, Berzerker and a black-haired girl called Scaleface nodded. They had been given normal clothes in blue and red, respectively, and like Callisto, they were chained to the statue. Scaleface was not an ugly girl, but she looked as if she had never slept a day in here life. They were joined by another girl, Jubilation Lee, whose name was often shortened to Jubilee. It was a pun she rather enjoyed, as he mutant abilities produced energy blasts similar to fireworks. Jubilee was one of Callisto's young assistants at the boarding house for mutants she ran and wore her black hair short and was never seen without her yellow and pink-trimmed coat. "This little girl was nearly killed by hatred, and many of her friends weren't so lucky. How would all of you feel if you knew that your mutant hunting crews were taking the lives of children?"

"Excuse me, Callisto," Jubilee said to her, holding out a cell phone. "You have a phone call."

"It's not Warren, is it?" Jubilee shook her head. "Thank you, Jubilee. Yes? What... What?" Callisto sounded quite surprised. "Mr. Lehnsherr said that... very well. Thank you." Callisto tossed the phone back to Jubilee. "We're going to have to cut this protest short. There's a problem with Arkady."

"What is it?"

"I'll tell you later. If they overhear me, it might encourage them." After Callisto had unchained herself and the others, the police cleared a path for them to leave.

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"Fucking tragedy, man," Pyro said to Freddy as they cleaned the hallway. Pyro took a young cat-like boy from the floor and placed him inside a body bag. "We really should've been able to handle this... we've been training for years."

"We weren't trained for this. I don't think even Magneto could have taken this guy."

"He got you, didn't he?" Freddy nodded and pulled up his shirt, revealing a large scar across his stomach. "So you had the same problem, too. I couldn't work my fire when he was around."

"I could barely stand up around him. I didn't have enough strength to support my own weight. He had to have been a mutant, that's the only way."

"No, I've heard of this before," Pyro told him as he did a final check on the cat-like boy to see if there were possibly any life signs they may not have noticed before. "Darkholme was telling me that his mum was working as a mercenary a few years back and she ran into some rich guy who had a huge machine that could do that. Walking around dressed like his security guys, and then bam, she's herself again and her cover's blown."

"He didn't have any huge machine with him, though. He couldn't have hidden anything like that on his costume."

"No, but that was some years back, maybe they made a smaller one now. They do it all the time with computers."

"Could be... I still say the guy had to have been a mutant. It makes more sense that he was carrying something on him that cloaked him from our sensors than carrying around something just to cancel out our powers. Dorian's got powers like that, it's not so unrealistic to think that maybe there's another mutant like him somewhere." Freddy finished writing a name tag and attached it to the zipper of the bag before zipping it all up. As he did so, Pyro placed his hand on his forehead, then his chest, then his left and right shoulders. "Heh, I didn't know you were religious."

"I'm not... well, not really. Baptized a Catholic, but it's not like I'm real strict about it, but after all that just happened here, I think I at least owe these kids a quick prayer."

"So how do you feel about Father Stryker?"

"Hate him. I wish he could really meet God just so the big man can tell him how much of an asshole he is and put him in his place. Makes the rest of us look bad... not that I'm real devout or anything." Freddy nodded and checked the life signs of another student.

"Stryker ordered all of this," Pietro said as he stood at the doorway.

"...What?!"

"My father was telling me about it," Pietro explained as he examined a third student, then started writing their name on a tag. "His old friend Angel was going to pay Stryker a little visit- why, he wouldn't tell me- and that bastard who did this was working for him." Without warning, Freddy slammed his fist into the wall, bending it and leaving an imprint of his fist.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Pyro said to his large friend. "His little campaign is one thing, but this is too much! I'm going to have a talk with Magneto, we're gonna have to put him in his place!"

"No, hold on a second!" Pietro sped to the door to block it. "I'm not happy with this either, but if he's got that guy working for him, we're not getting much farther than these kids! My father's working on it, but right now, there's not much we can do about it." Pietro saw the body that Freddy and Pyro had gone back to checking. Once Pyro had checked all life signs and confirmed the death, Freddy took the dagger buried in the girl's chest and looked at it.

"Some weapons this guy was using."

"Wait a second, let me see that." Pietro took it and held it up. "...Might be useful. I'll take it to Magneto, see if this helps out any. Thanks guys. I've got to check the security systems and see what it was that let him sneak in like that. I'll keep you guys posted if I find out anything." Pietro stopped at the door. "...And don't tell Magneto that I told you all that." He walked out.

"Better not tell your girl about it, either," Pyro said to Freddy. "I don't need loose objects clocking me on the head again."

"I'll be sure not to be too blunt about it." Freddy had a way of talking to Jean, who struck fear in the others because of her attitude which, combined with her powers, made her unpleasant when angry, to say the least. "This is going to be a PR nightmare. Bad press, lawsuits... I hope Wanda's ready for all this."

"Bah, she's ready to take on the human race with just a fork and a knife. She can handle this." Pyro zipped another bag and once more made the sign of the cross. "Hope these kids find their way."

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Evan walked through the dark hall of an apartment building with Gambit. They had traveled all the way to New Jersey on... business, running an errand for Storm. They had finished their minor job and decided that while they were there, they would take care of another small errand. Evan kept his sunglasses on even in the dark and wore a raincoat, as did Gambit. Evan stopped at a door with "F3."

"This it?" Evan asked. Gambit held up a small shred of paper and charged it with his mutant power. Lit, they could clearly see "F3" written on the paper. Gambit let the paper slip and the energy quickly consumed it, leaving no evidence except a smile cloud of ash. Evan knocked on the door and stood directly in front of the eyehole.

"Just a minute," the female voice inside called. Evan had seen the eyehole darken briefly, so she had already checked. The door opened and they were met by Tabitha Smith, a young blonde-haired woman wearing a gray t-shirt and jeans. Her hair went down to her back, with some of it hanging down to her chest. "What can I do for you boys?"

"Aren't you going to invite us in?" Gambit asked with a sly grin and a half-wink.

"Oh, where are my manners? Come in, come in. Don't mind the mess..." Clothes were thrown around Tabitha's tiny apartment, covering her couch and the small table she used for dining. "Anything I can get for you?"

"But of cour-" Gambit was stopped by Evan, who smacked him upside the head while keeping his eyes on Tabitha.

"This isn't a social call, we're here on business."

"Listen, Evan, if it's about two weeks ago, I can get her the money by Thursday, I swear!"

"She doesn't care about that anymore. We've moved on to bigger things. I had a team of mutants up until two days ago. We were sent to assassinate someone, but they're... missing in action."

"I see..." Tabitha said with some concern.

"I'm recruiting, Tabitha. I'm getting a new team together to finish the job."

"...And you want me to help you?"

"Yes." Evan wasted no time getting to the point. He didn't have the sweet-talking abilities of his aunt, but his stern realism was just as effective. "If we complete this job, all debts will be cleared and you'll be free of any further obligation."

"Is that so?" Tabitha asked hopefully. "Wait... what's the catch? Who's the target?"

"William Stryker." Tabitha felt shivers down her back. She quickly got up.

"You know, I've been busy around here, I've got so many projects going on, I don't know if-"

"You don't have a choice, Tabitha. Having your debts cleared isn't your reward, it's a gift. My aunt is a kind woman, you know. Either way you look at it, whether we take him out or not, you won't owe her anything ever again. If you don't agree to this..." Evan produced a bone-spike from his palm and held it inches from her face.

"I... well... since I don't have a choice."

"Aw, it won't be so bad," Gambit said to her. "You've got me on the team..." Gambit looked Tabitha over, admiring her curves, "...and I'm definitely looking forward to working with you."

"Enough, we can't waste any time," Evan said. "You'll meet us tomorrow morning at six in New York. You know where to find us." Evan got up, followed by Gambit, who gave Tabitha one last wink before they walked out.

"Looks like this job's gotten spicier," Gambit said to Evan as they walked down the stairs.

"Eh, she's not my type. I prefer clean women."

"Oh... she?"

"No, substance abuse. She's been doing some small-time dealing for my aunt around here and she's become addicted to the stuff herself. Come on, we've got one more place to hit." Back in her apartment, Tabitha sighed and threw herself onto the couch. Looking for some quick relief to her sudden stress, she took a tiny bottle from the pocket of a jacket lying on the floor, filled with a blue-gray liquid. She stuck a needle through the lid and drained the bottle. Moments later, her eyes rolled into the back of her head for a second, and she fell back down on the couch, her tension eased and glazed smile on her face.

"Ah... legacy, you'll always be my friend..."

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"What do you mean he's missing?" Callisto asked. She had returned to the West Park Boarding House, which was secretly a shelter for mutants, much like the Xavier Institute, but on a smaller scale. Sam Guthrie stood at the doorway of a room that had been trashed. There were clearly signs of a struggle, with marks on the wall in the shape of thick cords. Someone had been whipping around metallic tentacles in the fight, and whoever had broken in had come through the window.

"He was here, then he started yellin' at someone," Sam explained with his thick Southern accent, "And then he screamed. I checked on him, and I found the room like this. Looks a lot like an abduction if you ask me." Sam was tall and lanky with messy blonde hair. He was dressed in clothing about two sizes too large for him, giving him a slightly comical appearance.

"Arkady can take care of himself. He was trained for this sort of thing... but who would want to take him?"

"Maybe the Russians wanted him back."

"Doubtful, the Soviet Union fell years ago. Still, I think Magneto should hear about this." Callisto reached into her vest for her cell phone, but it began to ring. Cautiously, she checked the screen. "Argh, it's Warren again. Jubilee, could you get this and tell him I'm still not talking to him?"

"Fine." Jubilee took the phone. "Hello? Oh, hi, Mr. Worthington. Oh? Sorry, Callisto is still not talking to you. What do you mean why?"

"Gimme that!" Callisto yelled. "You expect me to believe that you have absolutely no idea why I'm not talking to you?! You have some nerve, Worthington! Good... what? Oh... my... yes... yes, thank you, Warren..." Callisto hung up and put the phone away. "The students at the Xavier Institute..."

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Magneto was now dressed in his uniform and stood at a communications console in the Danger Room control room with his cell phone plugged in to a device near a speaker. The control room was a balcony overlooking the Danger Room, high enough that none of the equipment could reach it on its own, but there was still a low-level shield around it just in case. Below, Beast and Freddy talked with the six remaining students, which included Amara Aquila, Danielle Moonstar, Rahne Sinclair, Roberto DaCosta, Dorian Leech, and Jamie Madrox, all of whom were still frightened. Jamie couldn't even speak. Pietro walked into the balcony carrying a bloody dagger.

"Arkady's disappearance is indeed puzzling," Magneto said, speaking to Callisto via phone.

"We can't get involved in this, but I'd appreciate any information."

"If any of my contacts see so much as a hair belonging to him, I will tell you."

"Thank you, Magneto." Callisto hung up and Magneto turned to his son and the knife he held.

"Evidence?" Magneto asked.

"I found it in the east corridor." Magneto pulled the dagger from Pietro's hands and levitated it before his eyes. The blade itself was made of highly-polished silver, and the handle wrapped in leather. "Yeah, it looks like a regular dagger, but Danielle said it launched itself, and these daggers seemed to go right for the kids."

"Then we'll just have to unlock its secrets." The blade and handle were pulled apart and Pietro quickly unwrapped the leather bindings. Magneto then twisted the handle open to reveal a complex miniature device inside. He brought it close to him to examine it.

"So what is it?"

"A mutant tracking device... it basically works the same way that our mutant detection system does."

"Whoa, wait a minute, so this is a pint-sized version of the stuff we have?"

"Exactly."

"Then... but... he disappeared months ago... but why would he...?"

"He wouldn't. He must have been abducted and forced by these mutant hunters. This is all beginning to make sense. Pietro, get Jean to Cerebro." Magneto left the control room without another word.

"Wait," Pietro said. Magneto stopped in the hallway and turned to him. "I just... this is just so big..."

"And you want someone to talk to about it," Magneto said, understanding but not yielding. "Pietro, I wish I had time for that, but at the moment, we have to make use of every minute we have." He walked back in and placed a hand on Pietro's shoulder. "I know this is difficult for you."

"I just wish mom were still here. She always made us feel better, even at the worst times..."

"I understand. I miss her as much as you do, Pietro. Get some rest, Pietro. I'll get Jean to Cerebro."

"No, I can handle it." Pietro's tone changed. He was determined to show strength and hide his weakness, like his father did. "I'll meet you there." Pietro ran down the hall. Magneto took a moment to remember his wife. Kind, gentle, compassionate...

But he had no time for that. Magneto left the control room in a hurry.

Who is Magneto looking for? Who else is Evan recruiting? What is Tabitha up to, and what is this stuff she's been shooting up? And why is Callisto mad at Angel? I will tell you all one day... ONE DAY!