Disclaimer - I do not own X-Men: Evolution or X-Men. They belong to their respected owners. I will not make any money from this story.

A/N - Gosh thanks for all the lovely reviews. They are very kind.

Chapter Three.

Aidan Kale was more than furious. He walked around the house in a cloud of seething fury. Everywhere he looked he saw his operatives unconscious or waiting for the ice encasing their legs to melt.

"I was promised three new test subjects. Where the hell are they?" he demanded.

"They had reinforcements, sir" a man tried to explain meekly.

Aidan looked at him taking note of the bruises covering his face before striking out at him. His fist landed on his nose, which broke instantly. The man cried out in shock and stumbled backwards reaching a hand up to staunch the flow of fresh blood.

"Anyone else care to explain?" Aidan asked in an icy tone.

"Sir, we were only expecting three mutants but four more arrived. None of which we were prepared for, sir!" another man attempted to explain.

Aidan smiled wryly as he watched the man salute and stand at attention.

"Very well" he said in an even tone.

He looked around the yard seeing the melted remains of his weapons and the injured operatives trying not to look incapable before storming into the house.

The inside looked wore than the outside. There was rubbish everywhere and the front door had been completely blown off its hinges. On one of the chairs lay the unconscious form of a large lady.

"Will she wake up soon?" he asked one of the many scientists who were busy studying the room.

"We assume so. It looks as if one of the mutants can render people unconscious with the touch of their hands" one explained.

Aidan looked at the scientist, recognising him as Dr. Kyle Morgan, one of his leading scientists. He had experimented with the few mutants that they had captured.

"Very interesting. Can you tell what other powers these mutants might have had?" he asked in a disgusted tone.

Mutants were a threat and he couldn't wait to rid the world of them but first he was quite content to experiment on them. It was fun to see how long they could last before breaking.

Dr. Morgan looked up with startled eyes and Aidan suppressed a laugh. Most of the people who worked for him where terrified of him and it was amusing to see that this fear had begun to rub off on the more intelligent members of his operation.

"I believe one was telekinetic, very strongly so. One of them could multiply himself, according to one of the injured men. Then four more arrived. One can obviously create ice and another fire or very hot temperatures at the least. One blasted lasers from his eyes and they other was a teleporter" the Doctor explained.

Aidan listened carefully and mused over all these powers.

"Is that all?"

"Well, sir. According to some of the men the mutant that could teleport looked vastly different to everyone. Some have reported seeing a tail, blue fur, glowing eyes and the list goes on."

"Very interesting" Aidan interrupted.

"Also they seemed to be wearing a similar design. Those who came to help. They all had the letter X somewhere on their clothing as if they were all part of a team or operation" he finished.

Aidan smiled slightly at this and he saw the Doctor flinch.

"Very good. It's a pity we couldn't capture any of the mutants but there is always next time. Now I heard that one of the other teams captured a mutant outside of California shall we go and investigate?"

~*~

Jean woke with a start and stifled a scream. At first she didn't know where she was but as her sight began to clear she found herself staring at the familiar features of the Institute's infirmary. She reached up to her neck and found that a small bandage was lightly wrapped around her neck.

"Miss Grey, it is lovely to see you awake. How are you feeling?" she heard someone ask.

Turning her head slightly she saw Mr. McCoy standing beside her.

"My head feels fuzzy" she said, her voice coming out as a croak.

She coughed to clear her throat and tried again.

"What happened?" she asked, confused.

Something definitely felt wrong but she couldn't work out what it was.

"You where attacked and you got hit with a tranquilliser dart. A very primal form of weapon at their best but the one you got hit with was very advanced" Hank explained.

"Are the others all right?"

"Yes they are quite fine but I do believe Scott was quite worried about you" Hank chuckled.

Jean smiled wryly and sank back into the bed. Her mind was still feeling rather foggy.

"What was in the dart?" she asked as her eyes began to get really heavy.

"It was some form of sedative. It will wear off eventually" Mr. McCoy told her.

"Oh" she replied before falling back into a deep sleep.

~*~

Hank McCoy was very troubled by today's events. He was very protective of his students, as were Logan, Storm and the Professor. With Kitty being abducted and other reports of mutants disappearing he was worried about what might happen next.

Over the last few months various anti-mutant groups had started up all over the United States and in Europe. Rallied were being held all the time and what was worse some of this groups had the support of many high ranking politicians. Not all of them, mind you, just some of them.

With these latest events in mind he went in search of the Professor.

~I'm here, Hank. In my study~

Hank made his way to the study only to find that Logan was there as well.

"Logan, old friend. How long have you been back?"

"A couple of hours" he grunted in reply.

"Any luck?"

"No sign of the half-pint anywhere" he growled.

Logan had gone searching for Kitty trying to trace her sent.

"So we assume that who ever has her knew that we may come looking for her?"

"I'm not that sure, Hank," Xavier began, " and I get the feeling that they are very proficient in their objective. That drug that was in the dart, was I correct?"

"Yes. I don't think Jean has noticed yet. It isn't permanent though because that would defeat the purpose of the study. I think they use that to capture and transport but when they have them they keep them on a different drug. One that is not so potent."

"That would explain why I have not been able to locate Kitty using Cerebro" Xavier said.

"They want more mutants to experiment on. That's why they tricked Jean and the rest into going there. The strange thing is that Rogue confirmed the woman's story when she 'tapped' her. She truly believed what she had seen but Rogue also assured me that she wasn't working for them" Hank said.

"So stripes was right about the decoy. It was all a set up" Logan growled, extending his claws in frustration and anger.

"I'm afraid so and I think that who ever these people are they will not stop until they have what they want" Xavier sighed.

Logan grunted and Hank frowned. This wasn't the dream that any of them had for their students.

~*~

Aidan Kale strode through the hall looking very intimidating, which is what he wanted. People would immediately move out of his way. He loosened the tie around his neck and stormed into a room then into another hall. This hall had seven doors on either side. Each door had a number on it and, at present, five of the rooms were occupied.

He looked into one and saw Katherine Pryde staring blankly at one wall. Her eyes were glassed over and he could tell that she had recently been drugged to stop her form using her powers. The side effect was that she appeared almost comatose but he didn't care about that.

"Who are these people who want you back so dearly?" he mused.

He moved onto the next occupied room and stared at the mutant who was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. The name on her door said Marie-Ange Colbert. Aidan hadn't had much to do with her and all he knew was that she was from France.

All of the mutants had the same glassy look, which told him that the drug was working. He had gone to a lot of trouble to obtain all these specimens and he didn't want to lose them. He smiled grimly as he thought of what they could accomplish. Apart from the slight accident of today things were going to plan.

To Be Continued...