For new readers, which I hope there are, here is a quick recap on what you need to know: There are four groups in Bayville, the X-Men, the Brotherhood, the Acolytes, and the Turks. The first three are made up of their respective mutants, the last I made up of Vincent Valentine, Elena Marshall, Chaos (separated from Vincent, he calls himself Damon), and Cole and Murphy, a pair of mysterious twins. Vincent and Elena were in suspended animation for a million years until the world got like this and Vincent awoke to fight Galactus (canto 6) and was separated from Chaos when a powerful being known as Starmore died. Starmore and Vincent have a past together(Canto 3 and 5). Anyway, Cole tried to kill himself last night, Lance, Vincent, Murphy, and Elena saved him and have slept at the house for the night. Damon is in Tibet investigating Apocalypse with Logan. You want to know more, then read on, or go read previous cantos. Time for all hell to break loose.
The Song of Eternity
Canto 8
The Mutant Underground
Verse 1
Too Little Too Late
The calm is over,
The chain of events has begun,
No chance to change them,
All that is left is to react.
Lance opened his eyes a crack and rolled over to get away from the sunlight coming through the window. When his vision focused he remembered where he was. He had been out an a double date with Kitty, Rogue, and Cole last night when Cole went nuts and flew here after sprouting a pair of black feathered wings. Once he got here to check on him, he and Murphy found him trying to kill himself with sleeping pills and worked with Vincent and Elena to save him. He grunted as he got up off the bed and walked over to the kitchen to see what kind of food there was.
He opened cupboard upon cupboard, finding nothing more than hundreds of MREs. "No real food in this damn house," he swore as he slammed the last cupboard. He walked over to the refrigerator and opened it to see a few half eaten pizzas. "Works for me," he sighed as he grabbed a slice and tossed it in the microwave. As it cooked he looked out the kitchen window into the back yard. "What in the hell?" he swore as he tried to figure out what he was looking at. There were a dozen men that looked like marines, armed to the teeth, coming towards the house. He grabbed the slice of pizza as the microwave finished cooking it and headed to the stairs to go alert the others.
He knocked on Murphy's door first. "Go 'way, nobody here," he heard Murphy mutter.
"Murph, look out your window," he whispered loudly then took a bite of his pizza.
He heard some rustling then a thump and swearing. "Ouch, son of a bitch, what the hell is going on here," Murphy swore. "Go wake Vincent, last door on the left," Murphy shouted through the door.
Lance started beating on Vincent's door once he got there and was surprised as a fully clothed and alert looking Vincent opened it. "Yes?"
"Uhhh, your house is being surrounded by marines…," Lance explained.
"Great, just great. Go wake up Cole, I'll get Elena," he ordered as he saw Murphy stumble out of his room. Murphy and Lance pushed open Cole's door that they had to break down last night and entered the room. "Elena, we have a situation, wake up," Vincent ordered as he knocked on Elena's door.
"Dude, he's where we left him last night, he hasn't moved at all," Lance pointed out as Murphy tried to get a reaction from Cole.
"He's meditating, he's starting to come out of it, but it will take a few more minutes," Murphy explained.
"He'll be fine, follow me," Vincent ordered as he passed the open door and headed down the stairs. A minute later everyone but Cole was assembled by the front door. Vincent and Elena were dressed in the familiar blue suits of the Turks while Lance and Murphy had nothing but jeans and t-shirts. "Stay inside, let me go talk to them," Vincent ordered as he pulled out his gun, the Agememnon. His old guns and materia were transformed into this one by Starmore several months ago.
Vincent pulled on a pair of sunglasses as he opened the door and stepped out into the morning sunlight. He glanced around him to see three marines on either side of the porch with machine guns pointed at him. "You are trespassing," Vincent said as he left his gun pointed at the ground, not wanting to get filled with holes. When the marines did not respond he tried something else. "Where is your commanding officer? I am interested in seeing what would possess him to take such action against someone who is sanctioned by the Avengers and the United Nations," Vincent demanded.
He watched as a tank rolled down the street and stopped in front of his house. He kept watching as a colonel got out and walked until he was a few feet in front of Vincent. "I am Colonel Stone. Vincent Valentine, you and the rest of the Turks are hereby placed under arrest by the United States of America," the man stated.
"On what charges?" Vincent growled, not liking the situation.
"For having knowledge of and aiding the mutant terrorists in the town. By order of the United States, your people and the rest of the mutant terrorists in this town are to be placed under arrest and taken to a maximum security military prison," Stone explained. "If you refuse to come peacefully we will be forced to attack you."
"This is a mistake," Vincent said as he looked at the ground in front of him. "We were put here to keep the mutants in check and have done so for the past week. What has caused this order to come about?"
"The president learned exactly who the mutants you were protecting are and what their powers are and deemed the threat to great. Please come with us, make this easy on yourself and the others in there," Stone threatened.
"We will not be taken as criminals because you fear us," Vincent said defiantly. "Barrier," he whispered. He backed up slowly until he was back at then door. "You will not take us," he added.
"Open fire!" Stone shouted as Vincent opened the door and ran back inside. The bullets fired at the door stopped harmlessly as they hit Vincent's barrier spell. "Take the house!" Stone shouted.
"Voiceprint authorization: Vincent Valentine, code red, lockdown the house now!" Vincent shouted as he heard Stone's orders. The house reacted immediately, metal plates slid out from nowhere and covered all the windows and door to prevent access. "Cole get your ass down to the basement!" Vincent shouted as he led the rest of them into the basement. "Code red: activate war room," Vincent said clearly as the walls slid back to reveal cameras showing the outside of the house and the floor opened to reveal the secret computer room left by Starmore. Cole staggered down the stairs, looked at the images from outside, then looked at Vincent questioningly.
"Someone in the government has declared it open season on mutants," Vincent explained. "Apparently the Turks are fair game as well. We need to get out of here and help the others if we can," Vincent said as he pressed a button and a map of Bayville came up. "Elena, go to Magneto's group. Lance, you go with Murphy to your own house. Cole, you head out to Xavier's. I will follow you after creating a diversion here. Be careful, these marines know your powers and are prepared," Vincent added. "Evacuation packs deploy," he said causing another wall panel to open, revealing several lightweight backpacks. "Take one of these, it has money, directions to various safe houses, keys and directions to spare cars we keep around the city, everything you need to get out of here," he explained.
"How are we gonna escape, you sealed us in here?" Lance asked as he and the others put their packs on.
"There's an escape tunnel with some vehicles in it," Vincent explained as he pulled open a hatch. "Just drive and you'll come out a couple blocks away," he added.
"Vincent, I do not have a weapon, and if these marines know what their powers are…," Elena pointed out, trying to get the point across that they needed guns.
"Weapon rack, open," Vincent ordered as the final wall opened to reveal all sorts of guns. "Try not to kill anyone, they're just doing their jobs. Most of these pulse weapons, which means keep it turned halfway up unless you want to kill someone," Vincent said as he pulled a sniper rifle off the wall and strapped it to his back.
Murphy grabbed a pair of ones that looked like sub-machineguns and swung them over his shoulder. Lance grabbed one that looked like an uzi, he was uncomfortable with guns. Elena took a pair of pistols with hip holsters. Cole was armed to the teeth in seconds. He strapped a pair of pistols with thigh holsters on, followed by a pair of swords on his back, finally picking up a huge gun that looked more like a cannon than a gun. He threw his Turk jacket on back over everything and pulled out his sunglasses.
"Get going, I'll distract them and meet up with you later," Vincent ordered as Elena, Murphy, and Lance went down the hatch. "Cole, I am begging you here. I know you are going through a tough time, but killing people will not help our situation," Vincent pleaded.
Cole shook his head and pointed at the monitors where the marines were trying to open up the house. He then mouthed, 'They will not spare us' before he went down the hatch as well.