It's All Relative
Chapter Six
President Robert Kelly sat in the Oval Office, trying to somehow prepare a message to the mutants of the United States of America; a proposal for peace.
But how the hell was he going to get them to listen?
The mutant activists in this country and many others had been sparked into a movement for war by the attack on Charles Xavier. Thousands had flocked to Genosha; possibly the only place left where they were truly safe at the moment. But that would soon change unless Kelly could do something about those who lived to 'cleanse' their world of the mutant 'filth'.
Kelly shuddered to think upon the days when he had been just like them; the horrible things he had said. It made him sick to think of the Sentinels, the Mutant Registration Program, and the death and misery caused by prejudice and hatred in this country that was supposed to stand for equal rights, diversity, and, above all, freedom.
"Mr. President?" Kelly's thoughts were interrupted, and he looked up to see Jerry O'Doyle, the Secretary of Defense, standing in the doorway. "We may have a problem."
"What is it?"
"There's a mutant on the line," he replied seriously. "She wants to speak with you."
"Well, put her through to here, then," Kelly stood up, ready to receive the message. "I need to be able to reach out to the mutant community to have a better idea on how to help them and keep this country peaceful at the same time. Did you happen to get her name?"
"Yes," O'Doyle nodded gravely. "Nadia Molotova."
Kelly stood very still for a moment, his mind racing on how to handle the situation. The Brotherhood and its members were always very devoted to their cause, whatever it may be at the time. "Get Scott Summers on the line. Have him listen to what's said, and then I'll speak to him myself after I'm finished."
"Yes sir, Mr. President," O'Doyle nodded, and left the room to do so. Kelly pushed a button on his desk and the cabinet doors slid back and to the side, revealing a large viewscreen, on which Velocity's image appeared after a slight flicker.
"Mr. President," she smiled slightly. "Nice to know you're not above speaking to the commoners."
"I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to get to the point, Ms. Molotova," Kelly told her bluntly.
"Naturally. We have recently acquired into our possession a large number of nuclear warheads, and unless you co-operate, we will have no other choice but to use them to lead the mutants of Genosha into the coming war against mankind."
"Well, unfortunately for you, it is not in this nation's policy to negotiate with terrorists," Kelly responded.
"But it is in your policy to harbor them?"
"Excuse me?"
"The Friends of Humanity have terrorized the mutant community for years, and you do nothing to stop them. How can you call America, 'The Land of the Free', when innocent mutants live in fear of their lives, hoping only to make it through the day without being beaten in the street for the way they were born?"
"I am doing all in my power to work toward the day when mutants and humans can live together peacefully."
"Then make your job easier, and deliver the Friends of Humanity Head Council to us."
"I cannot do that."
"Then we go to war."
"A war would endanger innocent lives; human and mutant," Kelly argued. "There are peaceful alternatives. Not all people hate mutants."
"It is too late for these words," Velocity shook her head. "And I will show you why." She snapped her fingers at someone off-screen, and the image divided in half, displaying a man huddled in a jail cell, as well as Velocity's image. A man Kelly recognized quite easily. "Genosha cries out for vengeance for the crimes against their mutant brothers and sisters, and we are their salvation. If the leaders are not delivered to us, Graydon Creed Jr. will be executed in Genosha. The moment his blood stains the earth will mark the beginning of the human-mutant war."
"What you ask isn't possible, Molotova," Kelly refused. "I will do all in my power to see justice done, but I will not allow you to take the law into your own hands."
"Then we have nothing further to discuss. You have twenty-four hours, Mr. President," Velocity smiled evilly. "And as further incentive, because I know the X-Men are enjoying our little conversation-" she motioned again to the off-screen person, and the image of Creed changed to that of Morph in his cell, "-everybody's favourite little shapeshifter will join Mr. Creed in Genosha and share his fate."
"No!" Cyclops was the only one who could manage to speak through his shock.
"Goodbye, Mr. President," Velocity stated, and the transmission ended. A moment later, Kelly's image replaced it.
"Cyclops," he said gravely. "I'm sorry to put this on you, but I need the X-Men's help."
"We'll do whatever it takes to stop them, Mr. President," Cyclops replied. "This one's just become very personal."
"I'm about to send your team on a Black Ops mission, Mr. Summers," Kelly went on. "I want you to use any means you deem necessary to safely recover the hostages, as well as keeping those nukes from being used. The hostage Creed is to be brought back here for sentencing for his past crimes."
"I understand," the other nodded. "We'll soon have this under control."
A man Cyclops recognized as the Secretary of Defense handed Kelly a piece of paper, which the President quickly reviewed. "On a side note," he continued. "It seems that a scrambled call was made to Mortimer Toynbee's apartment there in New York City. I want you to check it out; it's probable that the missing Brotherhood members may be located there."
"Agreed. Thank you, sir. Cyclops out," he saluted Kelly.
President Kelly returned the salute and the image disappeared. He turned to Jerry O'Doyle, seeing the troubled look on the Secretary's face.
"Are you sure that this is the best idea, sir?" he asked. "I can have the military assembled in a couple hours, and we'll have this under control ourselves."
"The transmission was scrambled, Jerry," Kelly shook his head. "We don't know where they are."
"We have an elite team working on that. The signal will be overridden before long."
"By then it will be too late. Believe me, Jerry, these people are smart. Toynbee alone borders the line of sheer genius. We have to approach this situation delicately, and the X-Men are professionals in this area." He put his hand on O'Doyle's shoulder. "We have to trust them." I owe it to Charles to trust them, he thought. "Besides," Kelly added. "The less the public hears about a nuclear threat, the better. We don't need any more mass panic than we already have."
O'Doyle sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing, sir."
"Yes, I do."
Cyclops turned to face the worried gazes of his teammates. "I know you're all worried about Morph, because I am too."
"Dat's why we gonna go wherever you lead us ta get him back, mon ami," Gambit assured him.
Cyclops smiled thankfully at the Cajun. "I need a team to check out the Toad's apartment. Storm; take Rogue and Gambit with you. Report anything that you find there."
"You can count on us, my friend," Storm assured him. "We shall not fail you." She left the room with Gambit following. Rogue hesitated a moment, and then approached Cyclops.
"Hey, Scott?" Rogue addressed him. "Ah been meanin' ta talk to ya 'bout what Ah said last week. 'Bout y'all not actin' like a leader? Ah was jus' havin' a li'l trouble, what with losin' the Professor an' all. An' now with what Mama and ma sister are doin', well heck, y'all are ma real family now. Anyway, what Ah mean ta say is that, Ah didn't mean what Ah said. Y'all are a great leader."
Cyclops smiled, so grateful for her words of belief in his leadership abilities; words that he needed to hear from his team. "Thank you, Rogue. You have no idea how much I appreciate that."
"Ah think mebbe Ah do jus' a little," she winked. "Heck, Ah was mighty 'preciative when y'all took me in after all the terrible stuff Ah did. Y'all accepted me, an' mebbe yah jus' needed a li'l acceptance yourself." She extended her hand to him.
He shook it.
Rogue turned to leave and Cyclops looked up to see Jean standing in the doorway. She smiled at Rogue as she passed, then walked to Cyclops.
"Don't say it," he smirked, taking into his arms and kissing her.
"I told you so," she said it.
Cyclops grinned, and then looked up at Beast, still in the room, watching with a knowing smile on his furry blue face. "Where's Wolverine?" he asked him.
"I believe that he and Jubilation are presently awaiting young Mr. Alver's awakening," Beast informed him.
"Alvers is probably our best bet to finding out where Nadia and the others are," Cyclops nodded thoughtfully. "Let's go see if we can't quicken his recovery."
Jubilee studied Avalanche's still form lying on the bed. Her eyes moved from the blood-soaked bandages that wrapped his wounded shoulder, to his sickly-pale face and the sweaty strands of dark brown hair that framed it.
She looked up at Wolverine. "Does it scare you?"
He raised a questioning eyebrow, holding back the urge to sarcastically inform her that there were but two mind-readers in the mansion, and he was not one of them. "Does what scare me?"
"To know that you almost killed him last night?"
He shrugged. "If I didn't get him, he woulda got me."
"That's what scares me," she replied. "It's bad enough what the Friends of Humanity and the Sentinels do to mutants, but mutants even attack each other! You two meet in the street and nearly kill each other!" She took a breath to calm herself, and used the tail of her yellow coat to wipe the beads of sweat from Avalanche's brow. "I just think that maybe if we want to convince humanity to live peacefully with us, then we have to live peacefully with other mutants first."
Wolverine stared at her, recognizing the wisdom in her words; wisdom beyond her years. A fifteen-year-old kid who can see what so many others fail to see. But the good thing was: she was the future, and with these views and opinions, perhaps there was hope after all.
"You're right, kid," he said. "It does scare me. It scares me every time I think about the power I have, and what that power can do every time I lose my temper. I'm scared that life has gone as far as 'kill or be killed'. I'm scared that someone innocent's gonna get hurt someday," he glanced down at Avalanche. "An' though this kid ain't exactly innocent, he ain't done half as much bad as I've done in my life."
"It doesn't..." she was watching him nervously, "make you want to leave again, does it?"
He reached out and took the girl's hand in his. "I ain't goin' nowhere, Jubes. I'm an X-Men. An' if I learned anything from Xavier, it's that I got responsibilities with that name."
She embraced him tightly as the Infirmary door slid open, and Cyclops, Jean, and Beast entered. Jean had a knowing smile on her face.
Well, whadda ya think, Jeanny? He thought, knowing she was listening. You were the one who wanted me to talk to someone.
I'm so very proud of you, Logan.
"What's up, everyone?" Wolverine asked, smiling inside at Jean's response. "You come ta watch the show? Rocky here ain't doin' much, but if ya stick around, sometimes his eyelid flickers," he grinned sarcastically. "All very interesting."
"Actually, we're looking to give his act a little push," Cyclops replied. "Beast, see what you can do. I don't care what his condition is; I want him awake."
"Immediately," Beast moved to the bedside.
"Logan," Jean motioned for him to talk to her privately, and he approached her.
"What is it, Jeanny?" He could sense trouble.
"It's Morph," she frowned. "Th--they're executing him and Graydon Creed in Genosha."
"No," he clenched his teeth. "If anything happens to him, I won't rest till I've hunted down each and every one of 'em and avenged him."
"It won't come to that," she assured him. "We're going to find out from him-" she pointed to Avalanche, "-where Velocity's squad is, and we've sent a team to the Toad's apartment. There's evidence that Mystique's squad has been hiding there."
"And when we find out where they are?"
"Well, Beast and Forge still aren't finished the repairs on the Blackbird," Jean replied. "Without it, we may have a bit of a problem, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. President Kelly has assigned to us a covert operation to stop the Brotherhood by any means necessary."
Before Wolverine could respond, Jubilee tapped him on the shoulder. "He's awake."
"Fantastic," Wolverine growled, stalking over to the bed. "Welcome back, Sleepin' Beauty."
"Where the hell am I?" he looked around, and realized that his hands and feet were heavily restrained, preventing the use of his powers. "Get these things offa me, assholes!"
"Besides having no desire to having our residence reduced to but a pile of rubble," Beast said, "it is in my professional opinion that it would be unwise for you to move on your own. You may very probably cause further damage to yourself."
"And who's fault is that?" he glared at Wolverine, who snarled back.
"Listen, pal," Cyclops grabbed Avalanche by the lower half of his face, his fingertips digging into his jawbone. "We're asking the questions here. Where's the rest of your team hiding Morph?"
Avalanche wrenched free of Cyclops' grasp, accidentally straining his shoulder as he knocked him away. "As if I'd tell you!" was all he could manage through a wince as the pain immediately throbbed.
Jubilee hated all the arguing; it would never get them anywhere, and she should know. Her eyes wandered to the laptop set on the nearby desk, and she had an idea: maybe there was something on its files that would lend a clue as to the Brotherhood's whereabouts. She walked over and plugged in the small adapter, and then turned it on. After booting up, the computer seemed to take on a mind of its own. Different program applications screens flashed on and off, until one message panel finally stayed. Processing Satellite Connection...
"Uh...guys?" Jubilee raised an eyebrow.
"Nadia? I kinda wanna tell you something about..." Toad let his words trail off as his attention was grabbed by one of the computer screens where a panel had suddenly popped up. The machine hummed with new life, and Toad was did not bother to hide his confusion.
"Something about what?" Velocity completed the sentence for him.
"Hang on a tick." He moved over to the console and tapped a couple keys. "What...the...hell?"
"What's wrong?"
"Something," he admitted. "It's connecting to my computer...at home. Why would they...I told them to get..." he seemed to have lost all ability to finish his statements.
Velocity moved closer to watch over his shoulder, and it wasn't long before a window came up, displaying a very pale and bedraggled looking Avalanche.
"Lance?" the two asked in unison, staring in disbelief.
"Uh...hey guys," he sounded nervous.
"Jesus, you look like shit," Toad said.
"Yeah, I ran into a little...trouble," he replied. His jaw was darkly bruised and the colour of his face along with the sweat running down his red cheeks suggested that he was probably running a fever.
"Mystique said you were missing."
"I'm here now, aren't I?" his words reflected his normal, arrogant self, but his tone did not. His dark eyes were darting back and forth. It occurred to Toad that he was trying to tell them something. Something was definitely up.
Jean had an idea, but she had to move fast. Velocity and Toad were getting very suspicious, and she knew Avalanche was trying to warn them of what was really going on, despite the fact that Wolverine was standing behind the laptop, casting threatening looks at him.
Psylocke, I need your help in the Infirmary, right now, she telepathically called her friend. Be as quiet as possible; communication this way only.
Already there, babe, was the reply.
Cyclops, Beast, and Jubilee were standing nearby, feeling very useless. Their biggest problem was that Beast couldn't trace the signal without being in view of the screen. That was why Jean's plan had to work. She had remembered how she had manipulated the machines in the peculiar Mojo's TV studio with psycho-kinetic energy. Now, with Psylocke's power added to her own, they could, theoretically, 'piggyback' their brain waves on the satellite waves straight to the machine Toad was seated at now.
And the advantage to being a mind-reader was that Psylocke already knew the plan.
The ninja-telepath entered the room and ran toward Jean. She gracefully dive-rolled across the floor, preventing herself from being caught on-screen, landed on her feet in front of Jean, and clasped the red-haired mutant's outstretched hand.
Cyclops's unique psychic connection with Jean gave him a mental twinge as the force of the women's powerful linked minds exploded through the circuitry as they completely focused their consciousness on tracing the satellite's signal.
Jean...
Professor??
Toad and Velocity exchanged confused glances and turned back to Avalanche. "Where are you?" he asked.
"At..." his eyes drifted off-screen and he bit his lower lip, "your place, duh."
"I told Mystique to clear out of there."
"What's going on-"
Velocity was cut off as the computer hummed louder, and sparks flew out from the popping circuitry and rained down on them. Velocity threw up her hands to protect her face, falling to the floor as she started backwards and slipped. Toad suddenly felt a determined presence in his mind; one that had just used the information there to discover their location.
"Oh, shit!" he spat, leaping backwards, trying to distance himself from the PSI-infected computer. "It's Jean! She's pegged us...right through here!" he pointed at the console.
"Get out, you guys!" Avalanche exclaimed. "They used me to get to you! I'm at their-"
Wolverine came into view as he punched Avalanche unconscious. "See ya soon, Bub," he snarled savagely, then the screen went fuzzy after a close-up of his fist.
"We've got to move!" Velocity cried angrily, picking herself up off the floor. "Now!"
"No shit," Toad hissed.
They raced through the base to the detention block, and Toad punched in the code to open the cell doors, and then entered Creed's.
"Whoa, where's the fire?" Morph asked curiously.
"We're leaving," Velocity stated bluntly, pointing his own gun at his head. "Move it."
"Okay, okay, just relax, Nadia," he moved out of the cell with his hands raised in submission. "It's not like I've got anywhere to go if I did get the bright idea to make a break for it, right?" He was being serious, and she knew he would co-operate.
Oh, God.
And now she felt sick to her stomach as she realized her promise to Kelly would soon become a reality. She assumed that either Morph wasn't fully aware of the details of their plot, or he did not think that they would go through with it. He was sure that they were using him as insurance to be left alone, or for a ransom, and that sooner or later, they would let him go home.
And she was going to have to kill him.
She didn't want to; not the least little bit. He'd done nothing wrong but been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And anyone who did their X-homework knew that Morph had a history of doing just that. His ordeals with the Sentinels, and then with Mr. Sinister gave her a true respect for the strength he really had inside him.
Her stomach tightened, but she held her composure and slowly lowered the gun. "Okay, let's go," she said, and Morph followed Toad, who was half-dragging Creed by his hair, out the door.
"Professor!" Jean exclaimed as she and Psylocke emerged from their psychic trance.
"Jean?" Cyclops snapped his head around to look at her. "What is it?"
"I heard him," she explained. "I heard his voice in my head. He helped us trace that signal, I know he did!"
"How is that possible?"
"I don't know, but it's true." She turned to Psylocke. "You heard him too, didn't you?" Psylocke, who had gone white as a ghost, had been visibly shaken by whatever had happened. She nodded without hesitation. "He's trying to contact us, I know it," Jean smiled triumphantly.
"Jean, what about the Brotherhood?" Cyclops asked.
"Yeah, how do we get to 'em?" Wolverine added.
"I have a feeling that whatever the Professor has to say will have to do with that," she replied, and tugged on Psylocke's hand that she still held tightly. "We have to meet him." The two women ran with purpose to the door.
"Meet him where?"
"The Astral Plain."
Pyro glared at Sabretooth as he stacked another crate into the helicopter - a Russian gunship that had been stored at the base. He knew something that Pyro didn't, and the Aussie had decided that it was time to find out what that was.
"What are you grinning about?" he scowled.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Sabretooth gloated, shooting a toothy grin at him.
"I've got my suspicions, mate," Pyro turned away, deciding that the best way to get the information out of him was to act like he honestly couldn't give a damn what the wonderful secret was.
"About me…or about your girlfriend?"
Pyro froze. "What did you say?" Sabretooth turned his back to him, continuing to pack the helicopter. Pyro grabbed the bigger man's muscular arm and turned him around with all of his strength. "What did you say?"
"Well, well," Sabretooth cackled in amusement. "You do have balls after all."
"Don't make me ask you again."
Sabretooth stared into Pyro's burning eyes, trying to work his power of intimidation, but Pyro held his ground. "Your woman didn't look too impressed when I told her what I heard you say about her in there," he loomed over him.
Pyro's anger raged at Sabretooth's blatant uncaring for what he had done. "You son of a bitch! How could you tell her that? I was ranting for God's sake!"
Sabretooth laughed; Pyro's anger was doing nothing but amusing him. "She asked me if I'd heard anything interesting. Besides, you said it, runt. I ain't startin' no rumors."
"Uh...I..." Pyro stammered, then blurted, "Fuck you!"
His flame-thrower clicked as he activated it, and his mutant power kicked in as he shot a wave of fire at Sabretooth from the tubes on his arms. The big mutant howled wildly in pain as the sickly-sweet stench of singed fur and burning flesh filled the air. He ducked out of the flames and furiously snatched a fist-full of Pyro's blond locks. The fire disappeared as Pyro's hands clasped over Sabretooth's, trying to lessen the agony of his hair being slowly ripped out. He frantically kicked his legs as Sabretooth lifted him off of the ground.
"Now you die," he snarled.