Okay, I've gotten around to this one now. Since it's been so long since I last updated this story, some of you might want to go back and read the last two or three chapters just to catch up on things (especially since most of chapter 8 was a giant flashback and doesn't have any direct bearing on this chapter). In fact, some of you may want to start from the beginning. The ending to this one will seem a little... weird to you, but it will grow in the next few chapters). Oh, and excuse the grammar.

Chapter Nine - Mutant Extraction

The first team arrived at the government facility Magneto had specified a few minutes after midnight. True to the building's nature, it didn't appear to be a heavily guard facility, but an office building with few windows. Currently, Toad was crawling along the wall, looking through one of those windows. A headset on his head allowed him to relay information back to the team.

"Things look clear here... no guards, no camer- wait, hold on... someone just walked by... I... uh... YAAAGH!" Toad quickly jumped onto the window ceil and jumped back up to the roof. Scott and Wanda sat on the ledge, with Pyro, Danielle, Jubilee and Dorian sitting near the metal spheres that they had arrived in.

"Well?" Wanda asked.

"They kinda spotted me..."

"Thanks a lot," Scott scolded, smacking him in the head. "New plan then?"

"We'll split into two teams," Wanda said. "The first team will make an entrance up here, and the second will work their way in from the bottom. Pyro, Danielle, Toad, Dorian, you're team one. Scott, Jubilee and I will be team two."

"That's all great, but who goes where?" Pyro asked.

"Give me a moment."

"Some leader." Wanda ignored him, then ordered the first team to arrive through the bottom. Toad had to help them all down, being the only one who could jump from that height and not hurt himself. Once he had helped Pyro and Danielle, it was Dorian's turn. He picked him up and jumped off.

"Jump off buildings often?" Toad asked on the way down.

"Every chance I get," he replied nervously. On the roof, Jubilee focused her blasts on a point indicated by Wanda and after a moment Scott blasted the same point. Down below, Toad broke through the front door and the first team rushed in. The denizens of the building wanted to keep up the facade of a small office building, so there was a small lobby with a receptionist and a security guard, who walked over to them.

"I'm sorry, the building is closed for the night," the guard said. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"When are your regular hours?" Pyro asked.

"We are open from nine to seven every day. We close at five on Fridays, at noon on Saturdays, and we're closed Sundays," the guard replied, sounding like he was reading a memorized note card.

"So what do you do in here, anyway?"

"Er..." the guard glanced to the receptionist briefly. She made some motion with her hand, and he turned back to them. "Tax services."

"Tax THIS!" Danielle yelled. She pressed her hand against his face and moments later, he was huddle against the wall, crying. Toad jumped to the receptionist's desk before she could reach under the table and spat a glob of sticky slimy on her hands and face, gluing her hands to her chair and keeping her mouth shut. The security camera had been looking away at that moment, and Pyro fried its wires before it could turn back to them.

"I could've kept him there making excuses all night, if you two would've let me," Pyro told them, disappointed. "Going up, then?" They shuffled into an elevator.

"Okay, now which floor do we go to?" Danielle asked.

"Third floor!" Toad suggested.

"Fourth!" yelled Dorian.

"THIRD!"

"FOURTH!"

"Team two, you in?" Pyro asked through his headset.

"We're in," Wanda replied. "One of the guards we questioned said Stryker's on the fourth floor. We're on the ninth now. Get to the fourth and whatever happens, don't let Stryker and Caliban get away."

"Yeah, your dad drilled that much into us. Fourth floor, guys." Dorian pressed the button and stuck his tongue out. Toad stuck his own tongue out and put him back in his place.

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Evan Daniels, Robert Drake and Warren Worthington took cover behind a wall of ice, hoping the bulletfire aimed at them could be deflected by the ice, but they could see that its opacity was lessening as the bullets chipped away at it.

"We can't hide here too much longer," Warren told them. "Daniels and I will make a diversion, you take the enemy down."

"Gotcha." Warren signaled and flew out of the left side of the ice wall with Evan running out of the right, launching bone-spikes at the guards. Half turned to fire at him, the other half aimed at Warren, soaring above them. Quickly, Robert rolled out from behind the wall and froze the guards' hands and weapons, neutralizing them.

"Not bad, Drake, not bad. Take Daniels and get inside with the others, I'll keep an eye out here." Robert and Evan ran through the fenced desert base and through a mangled steel door, but they didn't move too much before stopping behind a barricade, where Lance and Callisto took cover from the fire that hailed them from the other side. Callisto held a rifle, taken from a fallen guard.

"Where are the others?" Evan asked.

"Magneto and Pryde are moving forward," Callisto explained. "Our job is to get their attention... we're holding them off here, how are things outside?"

"We've got most of them down, Warren's scouting the area. I get the feeling this isn't going to work."

"Magneto's never let us down before, and we're not about to let him down." Callisto fired several rounds, taking down three more guards who had appeared. "This hall looks clear enough. We'll run down this way and then branch out and see if we can draw their attention long enough." On her signal, they did as she ordered, each taking a separate path through the base. Lance raised his hands at a trio of guards and dropped concrete and steel onto them, but he also caved himself out and was forced to take another path.

Elsewhere on the base, Viper watched from a secure location. Several security cameras had been destroyed, and the one she was looking at was frozen over, forcing her to look at another one.

"This has gone on long enough," she said to a nearby subordinate, standing at attention. "Human soldiers stand no chance against them. Send out our agents."

Evan stopped as he felt the floor beneath him rumble. He remembered the incidents at the Russian base and quickened his pace. He hadn't encountered any more guards; he realized that the guards were withdrawing and that new weapons were being brought out. So where was he going? Evan stopped. There was no need to create a further diversion. Evan realized that at that point, his greatest concern would be simply staying alive.

With no warning, the wall behind him exploded and the unstoppable Cain Marko marched forward, his hand outstretched. Evan fired a volley of bone-spikes, but they bounced off like toothpicks. Juggernaut grabbed Evan's head, surrounding it with his massive hand, and lifted the kicking and struggling teenager off the ground.

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Tabitha Smith woke up in her apartment, laying on the couch with a wet towel on her forehead. She tossed it off and sat up, noting that it was night and the lights were off, but she wasn't alone.

"You're up," Gambit said to her, sitting on a chair. "You've been out for a few hours. I thought I'd do you a favor and bring you home and tuck you in."

"Thank you," she said weakly. "What happened to me?"

"I dunno, but I'm thinking maybe, just maybe we'd better cut down on the legacy." Gambit pointed to Tabby's arm and her eyes grew wide with horror at the sight of large, violet-black boils covering her skin.

"What?! What is this?! This is a dream, it's all a bad dream!"

"Afraid not." Gambit rolled up his sleeve and showed her that he had also developed the boils, though they were smaller. "Maybe if we lay off the stuff for a while, it'll go away."

"For a while? I can't just stop! C'mon, it's gotta be some virus that's going around, we'll get over it." Tabby jumped to her feet and took a box from under the couch, opened it and pulled out a syringe. "I just need to calm down..."

"Girl, what's wrong with you? That's what's making us all freaky to begin with!"

"Shut up, shut up, it's just a virus, it has nothing to do with legacy!" Gambit knocked the syringe out of her hand and took both her hands forcefully. "Let me go! LET ME GO!"

"Tabby, listen to me, we've gotta stop this! I know it's hard, but this stuff's gonna kill us if we keep at it. C'mon, you got more willpower than that."

"I... I..." Tabby fell into Gambit's arms. "I'm just so scared."

"Don't worry, Ororo's gonna help us out. I hope."

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Toad hopped down the hallway with Pyro behind him, torching the carpet and securing the nobody would escape. Dorian and Danielle approached from the other side of the hall.

"Why are you burning the carpet?!" Danielle yelled.

"Keeps our enemy from running. I'm not always this clever."

"He can teleport, you know."

"Aw, crud." With one half of the hall burning, there was only one place to go, but Danielle and Dorian had already covered it. "So if you two got that side and we got this side, and we've pretty much looked all over this floor... where the bloody hell is that X-Cutioner?"

"Yo, Pyro," Toad said. "You know how in movies, anytime someone asks a question like that, the guy kind of shows up and kicks everyone's ass?"

"Yeah, yeah! And then the comic relief guy says 'hey, you had to say that, didn't you!' I love cheesy crap like that!"

"Yeah, well, you'll get a kick out of this." The X-Cutioner stood at the intact end of the hall, blocking off their escape route. He held his metal polearm with both hands, kneeling and holding it upright. With his right hand, he made the sign of the cross, then rose to his feet and pointed the polearm towards them.

"There's four of us," Pyro said. "He can't get us all at once! Here's the plan- Danielle, do what you can with his head while Toad and I kick the heaven out of this guy."

"What do you want me to do?" Dorian asked.

"Stand back and try not to get in our way. Heads up, pal!" A spiral of fire surrounded the X-Cutioner, who backed away warily. Toad's tongue grabbed his weapon, but the X-Cutioner maintained a firm grip, even as the flames grew closer... but then, in an instant, the flame spiral changed shape, becoming just two streams of fire coming from the emitters on either of Pyro's hands. "Awwww, what gives now?"

"Dorian!" Danielle realized. "If he's canceling our powers, than he's just as weak as we are." Toad tackled the X-Cutioner and pinned him to the ground. He struggled briefly, but pushed him off and backed away, only to bump into someone behind him.

"Going somewhere, pal?" Scott asked. Wanda and Jubilee had cleared the floors above them. The X-Cutioner looked around, holding his polearm defensively. Pyro, Danielle, Jubilee, Dorian, Scott, Wanda and Jubilee surrounded him. Even without their powers, thanks to Dorian's intervention, and with his advanced weapons unusable, he stood no chance. He dropped his weapon and stood up straight.

"You have won this round," the X-Cutioner announced.

"Where's daddy dearest?" Pyro asked.

"So you know," the X-Cutioner replied. "He is not here. He left around the time you arrived."

"Where did he go?" Wanda asked.

"I am bound to secrecy. I would give me life to keep him from being captured. You have all failed. This war can continue without me." The X-Cutioner pulled the blade from his polearm and held it in the air, then turned it inward.

"Stop him!" Scott and Pyro ran to him, trying to force the blade out of his hands, but he proved stronger than they though. Toad and Wanda ran in to help them. Jubilee looked on, confused and unable to understand why someone would attempt to take their own life so carelessly. The very thought sent shivers down her body and she felt her knees weaken.

"Jubilee, watch out!" Danielle yelled to her.

Jubilee looked down and noticed that metallic tendrils growing from the carpet were climbing up her legs- they had already passed her knees, but there was no use in surprising her. The tendrils quickly grew out and wrapped themselves around her waist and arms as well. With her hands still relatively free, she pointed them downward, forgetting that Dorian had created a field that left them all powerless. The tendrils pulled her against the floor as a circular opening was created, wide enough for her to be pulled down. As Danielle and Dorian ran to her, Jubilee disappeared and the hole closed, leaving no evidence of its existence.

"Where did they take her?!" Wanda yelled, punching the X-Cutioner across his masked face. "WHERE IS SHE?!"

"She has been taken to a secure facility by Omega Red. If you kill me, you will never find her again. If you let me live, then I will escape, and if I cannot, I will kill myself before you can extract any information from me." Behind them, the floor was ripped apart by the metal tendrils; they flew up and ripped into the roof, allowing Omega Red to lift himself to their floor.

"Dorian, give us our powers back!" Pyro yelled.

"Right!" Dorian concentrated as Omega Red's tendrils whipped around the room, smashing pieces of the wall and flinging them haphazardly around. One of them drilled through the wall and out another, wrapping around Scott and slamming him against the wall in an attempt to pull him through. As the others watched, Pyro noticed that Scott's glasses were red again.

"Power is back!" Pyro produced a fiery bull that charged at the Russian mutant, who recoiled in fear released Scott, pulling his tendrils back at him and then throwing them against the bull and tearing it apart. Quickly, he raised his tendrils and locked them tightly against each other in a spiral shield that blocked Scott's optic blast- unfortunately, a blue hex energy pulled the shield apart and let the blast knock Omega Red against the wall. He began to stand back up. He saw these mutant teenagers prepared to assault him again and his anger swelled, but then, he saw something else- he saw a room covered with machinery, filtered in red thanks to a liquid surrounding him. He looked down at his arms and saw to his horror that metal tendrils had been grafted to them. Outside, a bald man with goggles looked at him, studying him. He motioned to other men and Omega Red felt a great burst of pain, so great that he passed out.

"What the blazes-?!" Pyro watched as Omega Red gave up and his tendrils drooped lifelessly. "I guess we wore him out."

"Or I wore him out," Danielle said. "It took me a little longer than usual, but I got into his head."

"That's some good work, luv," Pyro grinned.

"This doesn't help us at all, though," Wanda said. "Caliban teleported away the moment his devices started working again, and we still don't have Jubilee."

"No, but we got him instead," Toad said. "If we take him back to my dad, he can probably get some information out of him."

"Okay, I think the three of us men will be enough to pick him up," Pyro said. "On the count of three... one, two... there we go!" Pyro and Toad held Omega Red's arms and Scott held his legs. "Guess we gotta get back to the roof, huh?"

"I'm glad you came along," Danielle said to Dorian. "We wouldn't have gotten this far without you."

"Really?" Dorian asked, feeling important.

"The point is, we still failed," Wanda reminded them. "We were supposed to bring Stryker back alive. He escaped, and so did Caliban. Magneto won't be happy at all."

"But we can still make it up to him," Toad told her. "I said maybe my dad might-"

"I heard you the first time Toad, thanks, but it's not the same. I doubt he knows enough to provide us with any real information. I'm pretty sure he's under some sort of mental control. He might not even remember fighting us."

"If it makes you feel better, we did our best," Scott reminded her.

"It doesn't, but thanks anyway." The room was silent for a moment. "Okay, there's an elevator this way." As Wanda led the group, Dorian pulled a fire alarm. After all, the building was on fire.

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"We only have three more," Stryker said, sitting in his private helicopter. The X-Cutioner sat across from him, next to the doorway to the cockpit, and a sedated Jubilee next to him. "We have sight of one of them in Mexico, Viper is taking care of them right now, but the last two are more elusive. I'm not sure what the Professor has in mind for those, but it won't be long before we have everything in place."

"If this is your plan, why do they not tell you what is needed?" The X-Cutioner asked.

"Because I told them I wanted a weapon, I leave all that science to them. Their job is to carry out my orders, and mine are to carry out the Lord's. This is clear enough for you. Don't question my judgment."

"I am sorry, father."

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Magnet and Kate Pryde had arrived at their heart of their journey, the cell block containing mutant prisoners behind vaulted doors. Magneto was slightly frustrated at how similar the entire base was to the Russian fiasco, but he planned to release the prisoners either way. Unfortunately, there was just one more obstacle, standing in the cell block on all fours, growling.

"This is their defense?," Magneto asked, slightly disappointed. Sabretooth stood up and roared, only to be silence by a steel door whalloping him from behind. "Pathetic."

"What... Magneto!" Freddy was behind the newly opened cell. "Am I glad to see you!"

"We'll have time for words later." Magneto pulled apart the remaining doors, releasing Jean Grey, Beast, and Mystique. "Quickly, we have to leave the base."

"Where are Kurt and Rogue?!" Mystique demanded to know.

"Rogue is safe at the Institute. Kurt... we are not sure."

"He has to be here somewhere, we have to find him!"

"He's not here. This is the only cell block on the base. If they still have him, he is being held in a more secure location."

"Then I'm not leaving without answers."

"You will get your answers soon enough." Magneto smashed the steel doors together, packing them tightly with enough pressure to form a crude, unpolished sphere. "Get inside."

"What about the others?" Kate asked.

"They'll meet us outside. This is Magneto," Magneto said into a small microphone. "We have what we came for. I'm ordering a full retreat."

"Copy," Warren said through a speaker. The freed mutants quickly shuffled into the new sphere along with Kate and Magneto and the sphere tore through the ceiling and several steel floors of the base were warped and bent unnaturally to give way.

Outside, Warren quickly dodged the sphere as it rose up in his flight path. He noticed Callisto and Robert running out of the base.

"Alvers, Daniels, did you get the message?" Warren asked. "Get out of there!"

"We've run into a problem," Lance said. Warren turned sharply when he heard a loud rumble and noticed that an entire exterior wall had been knocked over. Lance and Evan ran out as Juggernaut stomped after them.

"Oh, we did not need this." Warren dove in to get the two teens out of there, but Juggernaut swatted him out of the air with one mighty hand and threw him against the electrified perimeter fence. Juggernaut looked back at Lance and Evan before a sudden beam began covering him in ice. As Drake's beam continued, Juggernaut began chipping away at the ice forming around him, unhindered by it.

"Once he starts moving, there's nothing on this planet that can stop him," Evan told them. "We're not going to win this, we just need to get out of here."

"We can't stop him, but we can slow him down," Lance replied. A trench appeared in the ground in Juggernaut's path and he fell right in. The trench walls began closing around him, packing him tightly into the ground.

"Yeah, that works too." Callisto and Drake helped Warren to his feet and helped him walk away. "All in all, I think this was a pretty successful trip."

"Hmm, yeah," Lance agreed. "We could've used some more help from the others. I wonder what Magneto sent them to do?"

"Probably pick up some grocer- what the fuck?!" Juggernaut's arm flew out of the ground, pushing Evan aside and grabbing Lance's leg. The other arm soon appeared and Juggernaut pulled himself out of the ground and then grabbed Lance with both arms before running back into the base. "Hey! GET BACK HERE!" Evan ran after him, firing spikes and hoping to at least get his attention.

"They have Alvers now?" Warren said. "We need to go back in for hi-" He stopped when he noticed a helijet taking off from the other side of the base. "DAMMIT! NO! GET BACK HERE!"

"What's going on over there?" Kate asked over the radio.

"That monster just took off with Alvers!"

"Get back to the spheres," Magneto said. "I will deal with him." Magneto flew overhead towards the directon of the helijet. Warren sighed and allowed Callisto and Drake to help him back towards the spheres.

"Evan here," Evan said into a cell phone once the others were on their way off the base. "I'm in Mexico. Magneto has his team back, Mystique too. Kurt Darkholme is missing, though. Lance Alvers has just been captured, Magneto's going after him personally."

"What do they need Alvers for?" Ororo Monroe asked, on the other line.

"I don't know. Whatever they needed the others for, they're done, or they wouldn't have let us take them back so easily."

"Right. I have business to take care of here, Evan. Keep me posted if and when anything new develops."

"We're being followed," the pilot told Viper, who reclined peacefully in her seat. Juggernaut, too large to fit comfortably inside the helijet, had to sit on the floor next to an unconscious Lance.

"Contact the Professor, tell him we have him." Viper looked out the window to see Magneto flying side-by-side with them. The helijet abruptly stopped. "He thinks he's so clever, does he?"

"Perhaps," Magneto answered as he tore through the steel door and entered. "I will take the boy."

"You have no claim to him," Viper retorted. "We caught him, fair and square, as your students say."

"I know fairness, and I am reasonable. Turn him over willingly, or I will take him."

"What a predicament," Viper mourned. "We, in this metal contraption, and without any real weapons to defend ourselves against the master of magnetism. Very well, you may take the boy." Juggernaut lifted Lance and turned him over into Magneto's arms. Without warning, Viper drew a knife and deeply cut Lance's shoulder, spilling his blood on the steel floor. Magneto quickly withdrew before anymore damage could be done and the helijet was already speeding away. Lance was bleeding heavily, and he had no time to waste.

"The fool," Viper said. The co-pilot had left the cockpit and began collecting blood into small test tubes. "He could have just captured me and ended it, but now he has a sick child to tend to. It must be terrible to feel compassion."

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Hours later, both teams had returned to the Xavier Institute. Lance was taken to the infirmary and treated, Jean, Freddy and Beast were given food and then allowed to rest in their old rooms, but Omega Red drew more attention than any of them. He was taken to a secure room where Magneto, Mastermind and Pietro interrogated him.

"I know nothing," Arkady said honestly. Mastermind had managed to wipe the mental conditioning, but found that he remembered little of what happened during that time.

"We will take what information we can from you," Magneto threatened. Mastermind once more pried into Arkady's mind and searched for the answers they needed. He looked up at Magneto and shook his head.

"Then we have nothing?"

"Just what we knew before. Viper is developing a weapon and she needs mutants to power it... my guess is that she only needs their genetic code, which is why she allowed their escape today."

"And why she allowed me to take Lance Alvers, after she attacked him. Now Jubilee has been taken. Kurt is still missing. We're running out of time and options."

"We could just talk to Hank and the others," Pietro suggested. "They might know something."

"They might, but it's best not to pressure them," Mastermind said. "I'll talk to Jean later."

"But then, what do we do about Arkady?"

"We return him to Callisto's custody, just like before," Magneto said.

"Erik, he may still be dangerous. I've detected a small link in his mind to whatever it was that controlled his mind, this brainwashing hasn't been entirely removed. It could resurface at any time, or whoever controlled him could use that link to spy on us."

"Then we'll keep him here and make sure he's secure," Pietro said. "We have no choice then, we're going have to treat him as a prisoner."

"Yes, agreed," Magneto said to his son.

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"So what kind of crazy torture did they put you guys through?" Pyro asked. Jean and Freddy felt ready to rejoin the team, so they met with Pyro, Wanda, Toad, Scott and Danielle in the foyer.

"It wasn't so bad, really," Freddy explained. "The food was a little stale, but they feed us three times a day, our cells were climate controlled, and except for the fact that they drew blood from us every so often, it was pretty peaceful."

"That's pretty boring, mate."

"Okay, let me tell you the REAL story... the cell was cold and damp that night, and the lighting was poor. Young, handsome Freddy Dukes waited for his friends to save him and the beautiful Jean Grey, but Freddy decided that they had waited long enough: it was time to take matters into his own hands."

"I'm not going to listen to this," Danielle muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Aw, c'mon, Dani girl, it'd do you some good to lighten up a bit," Pyro encouraged her. "Freddy, skip ahead and get to the part where you fight the Yakuza guys with only a spoon!"

"No, no, no, this time, I had no spoon, I had only a broken jewel case and a stick of gum... and I was blindfolded! So there I was..."

"You left out there part where you bang your head against the wall and I had to fight them all myself," Jean joked.

"That was deliberate. I had to see if you could fight them all on your own. I couldn't fight all your battles for you." Their laughter was quickly silenced when Magneto and Pietro entered. The casualness of their conversation ended as the X-Men all assumed more formal positions. Scott and Toad stayed as they were.

"Your mission was a failure," Magneto berated them. "The capture of Arkady Rossovich has yielded little information. He may now be a liability to us, more than an advantage. Stryker and his assassin have both escaped and Jubilee is now missing. I expected this sort of failure from Pyro or Raven's children, but not from you, Wanda."

"We did what we could, sir," Wanda said calmly. "Our force was limited and they had the upper hand. There was no way that we could outsmart them on their home turf."

"Which is why your failure is understandable, but it was a failure nonetheless. We are dealing with an enemy more cunning than we originally believed. Our own mission was only successful because they wanted it to be. They didn't need Converse, Stalwart, Beast or Mystique, and they let us take them. We took back Alvers, but they still have his blood."

"Now we have to wait for him to make the next move," Pietro said. "Which means everyone has to stay here... again." Scott and Toad both groaned. "Hey, this is a nice place! I don't see why anyone would want to leave."

"Because this is gettin' to be too much for us," Toad said.

"You guys all have combat training, but we don't," Scott reminded them. "You'd think that would factor into your plans, but now that you're keeping us here, you're going to want to send us out on missions, too! We're not cut out for this hero stuff!"

"You have no choice," Magneto told them. "You will be hunted outside these walls."

"Better to take our chances out there then sit here and wait for them!"

"We will stay here," Mystique said, entering the foyer. "They still have Kurt and Marie is still recovering. If nothing else, then stay here so that you can help find answers about your brother."

"Alright," Scott grumbled. "But I'm under no obligation to follow orders." Magneto left the foyer, leaving the others to discuss. In the hall, he was confronted by Callisto and Warren. Warren's wings had burn marks, but they appeared to be fine.

"Callisto, I explained Arkady's situation to you, and Warren, I've already updated you on Lance's condition. I assure you that they will both be fine." Magneto started to walk, but noticed that neither had moved. "I have business to tend to," he said angrily.

"You didn't tell us about Caliban," Warren said. Magneto's eyes widened. He had deliberately told his team to keep the X-Cutioner's identity a secret- especially from Callisto and Warren. "We had to learn from Dorian."

"Dorian..."

"How long have you known he was alive?"

"Not much longer than you," Magneto said truthfully. "Rogue absorbed his memories and Mastermind culled them. I don't want either of you involved with him. There's no room for personal grudges."

"This isn't the first time you've lied to us, Magneto," Callisto reminded him. "How long were you going to let Caliban hunt mutants? Did you forget that he killed many of your own students?"

"I am aware of that," Magneto said, trying as hard as he could to keep his anger under control. "Nothing has changed. He is still Stryker's assassin and his identity shouldn't be any concern to you. Your vendetta will put all of us in jeopardy and you are both to ignore Caliban's identity and treat him as you would any other nameless enemy. Is that understood?"

"We're not X-Men anymore," Warren said. "You can't order us around."

"No, but you are guests in my home, and so long as you stay here, you will do as I say. Right now, our mission is to find and retrieve Kurt and Jubilee and return them safely. Caliban is not our priority."

"We understand," Callisto said with a sigh. She realized that Magneto had not intentionally lied to them, and that he was just as concerned about finding Jubilee as she was.

"Good. If you'll excuse me, I have work to do." They stepped out of his way and allowed him to continue down the hall. Callisto and Warren exchanged glances; Callisto was sad and worried, but Warren still had anger in his eyes. He turned abruptly and left.

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Father Stryker entered a large but dimly lit room with the X-Cutioner, a great round room with only one simple wooden door. A hole in the ceiling allowed daylight to filter through at two spots: at the door, and at the opposite end of the room, where a man sat on a stone platform. The top was smooth and polished, but the sides remained rough and uncut. The man faced away from Stryker, wearing a brown jacket and messy black hair, but the rest of his features were invisible to Stryker. The walls around the stone platform seemed to be made of cut sandstone and engraved with red symbols, the meaning of which were lost to Stryker.

"No, we told him that," the man said with a thick British accent. His voice was hoarse and tired, as if he had been speaking constantly and was not allowed to stop. "They did it." Then, the man spoke in a deeper voice, though it was still clearly his own, in a language unfamiliar to Stryker. If he had to guess, he would have said that it was an Arabic language of some sort. "Yes, yes, they know... I told them three times. I hope this will all be over soon..."

He spoke once more in Arabic, angrily.

"Twelve, yes, twelve... Father Stryker," the man called, speaking loudly now, but not turning to face him. "Do you have news?"

"We only have two subjects left," Stryker reported. "We have ten viable samples for the weapon."

"Yes, ten... a good number." The man hissed in Arabic again. "Yes, you heard him, he has ten. He only needs two more... which two did you say?" The man explained something to himself in his other voice. "Ah, ah. Tell Madame Viper to search in Bayville."

"Bayville? There are many mutants there. Magneto and his teams live there. Do you want another one of them? We might have had the opportunity to collect a sample from this one earlier today."

"No... not with Magneto. Look in Northern Bayville... tell Viper to search..." The man muttered to himself in Arabic. "Autumn Hill... search... Autumn Hill... is that right? Yes, Autumn Hill. Search Autumn Hill."

"Will both samples be there?" Stryker asked. The man hissed to himself, and then laughed in his deeper voice.

"No. Only one... one will be there. Once you have it... come back to me. I will tell you where to find the last one... come back to me... I will tell you..." In his deeper voice, he mumbled, and then shouted to himself in the other language. "Now, leave us. Complete your mission... you will carry out His will, father."

"I will. May God be with you."

"...And also with you..." Stryker nodded and left, followed by the X-Cutioner, who closed the door behind him. The man hugged his legs and began to rock back and forth. "The weapon will be finished soon enough... Stryker will be pleased with this idea... I will be rewarded... yes, I will be rewarded... at last..."

Well, that was... odd. Crazy man speaks in two voices, and one of them is in some wacky Arabic language, or Stryker thinks so, anyway. Is Stryker taking orders from this guy, or is he just assisting him in designing this weapon? Seems kind of crazy that they'd need mutant blood to power this thing, but oh well. Will Omega Red yield any information? Will Lance be out of action? Will Kurt and Jubilee be found? And how far will this legacy addiction take Gambit and Tabby? Who knows, who cares?