Chapter 5

Nick Fury sat in his office in the Pentagon. He didn't often use this office, but after the fiasco here a few days ago he felt he should stay here to keep an eye on things. He still had some unanswered questions about the event, questions no one seemed willing to even hear. He was even being denied access to the two mutants that were captured that day, and no explanation of why. He chewed on his cigar as he leaned over to go through some files in a desk drawer.

"Mail delivery, sir." Said the young lady that entered. He didn't even look up.

"Leave it on the desk."

She did so, and turned to leave, then said "There is one package in particular that you might find of interest, sir."

That gave Fury pause. He raised his head then quickly spun to face the woman, who had vanished. His brow furrowed. He didn't like games. He stood then caught sight of the padded brown envelope on his desk. He picked it up as he went out the door.

He glanced up and down the hall looking for the woman. He spotted the mail cart a few doors down and went to it. He looked all around for her, when a young man, likely someone's son, stepped out of the office he was next to.

"Son, where's the girl that delivered my mail?"

He blinked. "Girl? I'm the mail guy here, sir." He dug through his cart. "Here, uh, is your mail Colonel."

Fury absently took the bundle from the boy. He wandered back to his office. More unanswered questions. He closed the door behind him then dropped his actual mail on the desk. He looked at the padded envelope closely, as though he could discern everything if he just concentrated hard enough. He noticed there was no address on it, his or otherwise. It simply said 'open me'.

Confident that a bomb would not have come to him in such a conspicuous manor, he did just that. Ripping the edge of the package, he upended it and produced a videotape. He stepped to his small TV on a stand to the side and put the tape in.

On the screen he saw what must be the Vanisher, claiming something about top secret plans and mutants. Then he saw a crimson beam strike the man from behind. The camera jerked around some but before the picture was lost, he noted two people standing in the distance wearing black outfits with colored stripes. Fury's jaw dropped. Then clenched.

He hit is intercom, "Stacy, I get me the guys in video analyses."

Some time later and several miles outside of Arlington, Virginia now, Colonel Fury stormed into Dr. Val Cooper's office. She quickly closed a file she had been looking at and hid it, but not before Fury noted the large yellow 'X' emblazoned on the cover.

She put on her best fake smile and said, "Colonel, what a pleasant surprise..."

He threw down a handful of large photos with a great deal of force. "Cut the bull-shit Val. I want to know what the hell is going on, now."

"Why Colonel, I have no idea what you mean."

He leaned over the desk menacingly. "I saw the video. I saw how you caught Vanisher and Toad." Val blinked and her pleasant façade began to slip.

He pushed a photo at her. "Recognize this? This is a picture taken of what's left of a certain estate in Westchester New York. It was destroyed almost a year ago, Val. The night you and I spoke with Professor Xavier. Neither he nor his associate have been heard from since."

"I don't see what this has to do with me, Nick."

Nick nearly laughed at her arrogance. "You don't see...?" He jabbed a finger angrily at her. "You killed them, Val! You killed them then took every bit of info they had on mutants and you began recruiting to form your little strike team. You are using children, Val, children to fight battles they don't need to fight! Do you have no conscience?"

Val stood, her anger rising to match Fury's. "Do not presume to know my motives. I am doing only what I have been ordered to do! I didn't plan the attack on Xavier's nor did I know anything about it. I only acted on information someone else gave me."

Fury stiffened. "Just following orders, eh? How often have we heard that to explain some of the world's worst tragedies? Whose orders Val? Who are you working for?"

Val paused for a moment. "I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say."

Fury blinked and shook his head. "Do you see the pictures, Val? I have pictures of your team. I have pictures of you in a certain mental institute in upstate New York. I have security camera pictures of you at a gas station in Arizona and in a bar in Washington State. Do you have any idea what I could do with these if I wanted?"

For moment, for just a brief moment, Fury thought he saw the cold, hard façade fade from her, and for an instant she was just a frightened girl in way over her head. Then it was back and she took a deep breath. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The same people sign our paychecks, Fury. I don't believe there is anything you can do."

He turned saying "Keep the pictures, Val, I have plenty more." Then stormed out of her office.

The Senator's step was light as he entered his office, looking through his messages as he did so. He was unaware of the other man in the room with him till he pushed the door closed and locked it. The senator dropped the messages and turned with a start then he smiled a politician's smile. "It's a pleasure to see you." He said, extending his hand.

Nick Fury sneered at him then smacked his hand away. "I know about Dr. Cooper's pet mutant project, and it stinks of you, Kelly."

Senator Kelly smiled again, "Dr. Cooper's what? Dr. Valerie Cooper? I haven't heard of her in some time. Didn't she used to work for you, Colonel?"

"Don't play games with me. I'm too old and too pissed off for that."

The Senator took a seat behind his desk and leaned back. "I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about, but if you would care to tell me what it is you think you know..."

"Fine. A year ago Dr. Cooper and I met with a man that was keeping track of mutants for the purpose of building a school to teach them. He thought he might want government support for this so as to not have us against them. The night of the meeting, his school was destroyed and he and his associates were assumed killed. The reports indicate heavy explosives, such as rockets, may have been used to in the attack. Backed up by the remnants of a hum-vee carrying the charred remains of four soldiers sitting outside of the place.

"Dr. Cooper left my employ right after that. Since then, she has been spotted in the vicinity of several mutants that have since gone missing. Last week, someone made a videotape of part of the Vanisher's attack. You know the part, the part where yours and Cooper's mutant strike team defeated him as he was about to say something about the top secret plans he had stolen. Plans I believe detailed this mutant team of yours. And now no one, not even me, can gain access to him. Hows that for what I think I know, Senator?" Fury grinned as he chewed on his cigar.

Kelly frowned in concentration. "So, let us see...a young attractive woman that worked for you, and older accomplished decorated career military man planned and executed a complicated military maneuver on a mutant school and then kidnapped and trained a group of paramilitary mutant soldiers. You believe I am behind it all, planning through a woman that there is zero evidence I have ever even met and you have nothing to tie me to it. However, there would be a very strong case to say that you, Colonel, were behind it all and perhaps were even having some form of tawdry relationship with the good doctor. That is if anyone wished to say that."

Kelly smiled as he rose and went to the door. He casually unlocked it and opened it. "Have a good day, Colonel, and thanks for stopping by."

Fury stepped right up to the Senators face. "This isn't over, Kelly, not by a long shot." Then slipped out the door.

"I knew I'd find you here." Said Jean as she approached Scott on the small footbridge over the pond.

"Using those psychic powers of yours again, huh?"

She stepped next to him, leaning against the rail as he was and looking down at the fish in the pond. "No, I just know you."

He smiled a small smile that faded quickly. "Then tell me what I'm thinking now, without using your powers."

"The same thing you've been thinking since the Pentagon; that what happened to that boy was your fault."

He looked down again. "I should have seen a way to stop it, Jean, I should have. Now, I'll never know if he lived or died."

Jean shook her head. "It wasn't your fault, Scott. Creed... is, well, psychotic. He wasn't all there when he attacked that boy." She sighed. "I can't believe Dr. Cooper thought we could work with him."

There was an uncomfortable pause between them. Jean absently picked at a knit on her white sweater. Scott sighed deeply.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Jean asked.

Scott half grinned. "Can't you just see them for yourself?"

"That would be unethical, Scott, and you know it. I don't go around prying into people's minds for the fun of it. Especially with this headband back on."

Scott chuckled. "I was just thinking, is all. Those guys we fought, the were mutants, like us right? They aren't part of some sort of secret government operation yet they were there, risking their lives to help. They were good guys, heroes really, not some covert mutant strike team."

Jean shrugged. "What are you getting at?"

"I don't know." He turned around now leaning back against the rail. "I'm here because they were able to help me stop my powers from destroying everything I look at..."

Jean nodded. "And I'm here because I lost control of my telepathy and was locked up in an asylum. They were able to stop it."

"So, we are both here because we needed help that they could provide. Does that mean we have to stay with them indefinitely? Do we owe them our very lives?"

Jean shrugged again. "I don't know Scott." She blushingly took his hand in hers. "But if you decide this place isn't right for you, I'm with you."

Scott was at a loss for words. "Jean...I..."

"There is something else I think you should know..." she began. "When I was in Vanisher's mind...there was something that I saw. I don't know what it means but it was in regards to the document he had stolen and somehow linked to X-Factor. I can't get more specific than that; I didn't have enough time to poke around. But he was afraid of it."

"What was it Jean?"

"Just one word; Sentinal"

The small, squat mutant known as the Toad sad solemnly in his cell. He was sad, very sad actually. In his life he had known nothing but famine and squalor living on the streets, steeling to survive. When he chanced upon the Vanisher and was recognized as being special, he thought his life would change drastically for the better. It changed alright, he was stuck in a cell.

He heard foot steps echo down the long hallway in the Vault, the super powered detention facility he was in. A guard came to his cell door. The guard looked up and down the hall then produced a key and unlocked Toads cell. Toad stood but narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"Mortimer Toynbee, I am here to help you." The guard began to change right in front him. His features shifted and his skin changed in color to a deep blue, his hair to a brilliant red. And he was now a she.

"My name is Mystique. My associate, Magneto, is going to lead a war on humanity that will place our kind at our rightful place as masters of this world. You have been chosen to help."

"I've...been chosen...?"

"Yes, now come, we haven't much time, Toad."

The steady beep of the monitoring machines in the high-tech medical facility near the X-Factor headquarters was the only sound to be heard. There was, after all, just the one patient. Though his bones had been ground to near powder and he had suffered enough internal damage to kill a elephant, Victor Creed expected to be out of here by tomorrow.

He was lying in the oversized bed, flipping channels on his remote when a nurse entered. She was a tall, attractive blonde and Creed sneered at her as she entered, letting his eyes move up and down her noticeably. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Hadn't seen you round here before, what's your name, honey?"

She smiled an eerie and disturbing smile, "You know my name, Victor. And you know me quite well."

"I'm sure I'd a remembered something as sweet as you."

She leaned over him and let her eyes flash to red. "Mystique..." he mouthed.

She inclined her head ever so slightly. Pretending to be taking his pulse and temperature and whatnot, she whispered to him. "I can't believe you are working with these do-gooder types, Creed, not your style."

"It pays the bills. Besides, I got to slice open a kid the other day, that was fun."

She grinned. "I am certain. I work for Magneto now, and he is almost ready to make a move against the world. There's something we need you to do."

He smiled right back. "Ya know me, it involves violence mayhem and chaos, I'm all yours."

The thin, indigo skinned mutant barely managed to pull himself to the stream. Blood streamed from dozens of wounds on his body and he was fighting for each inch of ground he dragged himself across. The villagers had blamed him for some children that had been killed. He, however, had discovered the truth. The real murderer was his adopted brother, who fell to his death in front of all the villagers after the mutant had confronted him.

He had done his best to escape, but even with his abilities to teleport away, the mob still found him and beat him severely. He was within a few feet of the river now. He couldn't go on, however, and collapsed right there.

Someone was stroking his curly dark blue hair. "It's okay, Kurt, mother is here. I can help you, Kurt. Get you to safety. Protect you and care for you. I only ask one thing."

"Vas...?" me said through cracked lips.

"That you help my friend and I to help protect all mutants everywhere. It will be a difficult struggle, but one we will win. What do you say?"

"...Ja..."

Much later, in the Antarctic base known as Avalon, the master of magnetism himself was hearing Mystiques reports as he watched over his new additions to his mutant force. His first recruits to the Brotherhood of Mutants.

"Here is what we have, Eric. Pyro, able to manipulate fires but not create them. He is a bit of a free spirit and as long as we indulge that, he's ours.

"Blob I rescued from a prison. He went a little nuts after his circus was shut down. Full of anger and frustration, but a sucker for a pretty face. He's extremely tough and no force yet known can move him if he doesn't want to be.

"Toad, whose name is fitting on several fronts. He has fantastically strong legs and is able to deliver lethal level kicks. He is also very obsequious and devoted.

"Nightcrawler. He can climb walls, teleports and has amazing dexterity. He was a former circus acrobat. I...had to trick him. His heart, though, isn't with us.

"And last but not least, Banshee. Capable of generating powerful sonic bursts with his vocal chords, he is a former Interpol agent turned criminal, but you know about him, you convinced him to come.

"Oh, lets not forget Creed. He is in place and on board with your plan."

"Excellent, Mystique, excellent indeed." He stood, his new deep purple cape dropping behind him. "Let us then make ready our attack plan."