The Song of Eternity
Canto 8
The Mutant Underground
Verse 2
Hitting the Road
Some are taken,
And some escape,
While others battle to keep them free,
And one's descent into darkness continues.
Vincent looked down at the soldiers from his fairly protected and hidden vantage point on the roof of the house. They were trying to force open the doors with their guns to no avail. Then one of them opened fire on the wall of the house for a bit, then stopped when he realized that the walls were metal as well, just covered with a bit of wood and paint. "Never gonna get in here, Starmore made sure of that," Vincent muttered as he pulled the sniper rifle to his eye. "Time to go to work gentlemen," he said before zeroing in on his targets.
Colonel Stone watched as his men tried to force their way into the house to no avail. He went back to the tank to get on his radio to call in to his boss as to the situation when the first of his men fell down, clutching his leg. Immediately after a half dozen more of his men fell to the ground injured as Vincent continued to fire on them from his hidden place on the roof. The Colonel ran for cover as Vincent took out the tires on the jeeps and any other soldiers who had not taken cover. "Where is he?" the colonel shouted as some of his men scanned the area with their rifles.
"You will surrender now, or face the consequences, keep in mind, some of my companions will not take it easy on you when they encounter your forces," Vincent shouted down from the rooftop.
"You people are a menace, we will bring you in," the Colonel shouted back.
"Thought you'd say that," Vincent replied. "I suggest you all get away from the tank then," Vincent added before he gave them a few seconds, then popped up with the Agememnon and blasted the tank with a bullet empowered by the Ultima spell. As the bullet hit the tank, the tank lifted off the ground and flipped back across the road, landing upside down with a huge dent in it. "The jeeps too, ladies," he shouted as he heard the soldiers run for cover. He then popped up and blew up all the military jeeps with several well placed Firaga shots to the engine areas. "That will teach you to mess with a Turk," Vincent shouted before heading back into the house to make his escape.
Elena parked her car across the street and looked at the house where Magneto and his Acolytes had taken up residence earlier, following their break with the Brotherhood. She watched as they carried out the incapacitated forms of Magneto, Colossus, and Pyro. She put down her window a crack and heard gunfire and screams from the back of the building. "Valentine, this thing better be bulletproof like it's supposed to be," she muttered before shifting into drive and flooring the gas as the car sped across the lawn.
As she wrestled with the wheel, the car swung broadside around the corner of the house and scattered a surprised group of combatants. There were half a dozen soldiers on the left of the car and Sabertooth and Gambit on the right side. She hit the brakes and hit the buttons to open up the right side doors. "Get in!" she shouted as she stuck her pistol out the top of her window and fired at the soldiers who dove for cover.
"Go, get driving girl," Remy shouted once he and Sabertooth were in and closing the doors. Elena stomped on the gas again as she tore up the yard and screeched onto the road.
"What happened? Did they kill the others?" Elena asked as she headed for the closest highway.
"They came in really fast, had some sort of plastic armor, which made Magneto pretty useless," Sabertooth explained from the back. "After that, they tagged him, Pyro, and Colossus with some sort of power-neutralization weapon and knocked them out," he explained.
"By then me and tooth were out 'de back windows and had to go head to head with the soldiers you saw, who coincidentally tagged us with the power-neutralizing guns and started trying to take us," Gambit explained as he looked out the back window.
"Good thing my only power is to heal extra fast, they got in a few good shots on me, but I'll live," Creed muttered from the backseat. "Where are we headed?"
"Good question," Elena responded as she reached under her seat and pulled up a manila folder marked evacuation procedure. "Here, I gotta concentrate on driving," she said as she tossed it to Gambit.
Gambit opened up the envelope and started to scan the pages. "We on the highway yet?" he asked as Elena pulled the wheel to the side and drove through someone's yard and up a small hill onto the highway.
"We are now," she said as she floored the pedal.
"Okay, since we are being pursued or will be soon, it says to push the red button in the glove compartment," Gambit read. He then popped open the glove box to reveal a small computer screen and many buttons. "Here goes nothing," he whispered as he pushed in the red one. The radio of the car slid back to reveal another computer screen with several options on the screen.
Remy looked it over before talking to Elena and Creed again. "'Dis thing is just about the coolest thing I have ever seen. All I gotta do is push these two things," he explained as he pressed two areas of the screen. "And the car's plates and color change," he said as they watched the hood of the car turn from red to black. "And now, they can't find us," he beamed.
"Good," Elena said as she slowed down. "Look in the evac folder," she ordered Remy. "Is there a place in New York City?" she asked him.
"Yeah, says there's a safe house near the waterfront," he said as he looked over the papers. "And it says you can talk to the other vehicles," he said as he pressed a green button in the glove compartment.
Where are we going anyway? They heard Pietro's voice come over the speakers.
"Find out a way to transmit to them, tell them to head to the New York City safe house and meet up with us there," Elena ordered as she noticed Creed coming close to slumping into unconsciousness in the back. "And see if there is anything about a first aid kit," she added.
How am I supposed to know? Read the damn papers I gave you. I'm busy trying to escape the military. They heard Murphy's voice come over the speakers followed by a burst of gunfire.
Murphy and Lance stopped a block away from the Brotherhood's house and checked out the situation with binoculars. "Doesn't look too good," Murphy said as he watched the marines lead or drag Fred and Mystique from the building. "Mystique is blue and Fred is being pushed around, you know what that means?"
"It means they have guns that can neutralize powers," Pietro said from the backseat. "They already took Tabitha away in a truck and Wanda never came home last night," he explained.
"Great, where's Toad?" Lance asked.
"Hey, man, time to get out of here," Toad said as he landed next to the car and closed the door behind him. "Those military guys are right behind me, better step on it," he said as he pointed at half a dozen marines coming up the alley behind the car.
"Moron, you led them right to us," Lance shouted angrily as Murphy floored the gas.
"It was kinda unavoidable Lance. This whole town is crawling with military guys," Toad explained as the car sped up a street. "Just look around, someone tipped them off about us and our powers, Mystique didn't even fool them, they were expecting her."
"Shut the hell up and let me drive!" Murphy ordered as he narrowly avoided being sideswiped by a hummer. He glanced into his rear view mirror to see it and several others hot on their tail. "Here look through those papers Valentine gave us while I get us out of town," he said as he handed Lance the small pack Vincent had given them before leaving. "We might end up fighting these guys if I can't lose them."
"Where are we going anyway?" Pietro asked.
"How am I supposed to know? Read the damn papers I gave you. I'm busy trying to escape the military," Murphy replied. "This thing better be bulletproof," he mumbled as he heard the machinegun fire hitting the back of the car.
Murphy, this is Elena. Open the glove box and hit the green button twice to open up the two way radio transmission between the cars.
"Got it," Lance said.
"What's the plan Elena?" Murphy asked as he turned sharply down a side street.
Ditch whoever is following you, then follow the instructions in the papers in your pack, they'll explain how to change the car's color and plates while moving. Just lose your tail and get on the highway. We'll meet you at the safe house in New York City.
"Great, now I just gotta ditch a caravan of hummers," he muttered as he narrowly avoided one going in the opposite direction. "No problem, piece of cake," he added sarcastically. "Lance, you're gonna have to wreck the road behind us as we are driving, otherwise we're dead meat."
Rogue and Scott kept the soldiers a fair distance away with optic blasts as they fell back towards the woods. "Just a little longer, we need to give Kurt and Jamie more time to get away," Scott said as he dodged a dart full of the power neutralization chemical.
"Except there is the small problem of how we escape," Rogue pointed out as she phased and a dart passed through her. "Anyone else escape?" she asked as she knocked away a soldier who got too close.
"I don't think so, Jean and the Professor are down though, so there's no way to tell," Scott said as he felt a dart sink into his skin and his powers sputtered and died. "Crap, we are in trouble," he said as he saw one tag Rogue as well as her phasing powers faded away.
"You think?" she said angrily. "We have another problem now, we can't make it to the woods," she pointed out as three humvees cut off their escape route.
"You want to fight or surrender?" he asked as the soldiers closed in on them.
"Do you have to ask?" she replied as he put up her fists, ready to take on the first soldier to get close enough. They looked back at the front of the mansion as a chain reaction of four explosions rocked the area. "What was that?"
"It wasn't part of the security system," Scott said as he heard the groan of metal of a tank being hit by something powerful. He blinked as the sky lit up bright white as something else exploded in the front yard of the house. When his vision cleared he saw a dark shape come from the air and land behind the soldiers.
The figure took shape as Scott and Rogue realized who it was. There was a disgusting wet sound as Cole drew his black wings back into his body until he stood there in the suit he wore the previous night, breathing heavily, but not looking too worried. "Cole, get out of here!" Scott shouted at him.
Cole shook his head and pointed for the two of them to head for the woods. A soldier swung his rifle at Cole who flipped out of the way and delivered a chop to the neck, knocking out the off balance soldier. "Shoot him, he's a mutant, without his powers he's just a kid!" the leader of the group of soldiers shouted as his men fired a dozen darts into a surprised looking Cole.
Cole pulled each dart out quickly, but whatever fluid was in them had entered his bloodstream. He shook his head and blinked his eyes a couple times, then smirked as he sized up the soldiers preparing to take him, Scott, and Rogue. "Idiots, you are all idiots," Cole spoke, surprising Scott and Rogue. "Cole's power is to negate a certain anomaly, one of which is mutant powers. It is not there for him to use, to turn on and off. It is supposed to be on so I do not emerge. He would have let you live, he even tried to not hurt you too bad. But I have no such qualms," he finished as he drew out the pistols he took from the basement.
He then clutched his head and returned the pistols to their holsters. "Seems like you get to live a little longer since I don't see any corpses," he grumbled before pulling out the two medium sized katanas he brought with him. "But I still get to do a little slicing and dicing," he grinned as he started to walk towards the soldiers.
The first soldier swung his gun at Cole who sliced through it with one swipe, then cut a gash into the man's kevlar vest. He then swept the man's legs out from under him with a sweeping kick prepared himself as three others rushed him. He kept them at bay with his swords as Scott and Rogue watched the battle. He delivered a few nasty cuts to the arms and legs of the men, causing them to retreat from the attack.
"He is one of the Turks, stop playing around and take him," the leader of the soldiers ordered. Immediately two dozen of the soldiers who were watching the encounter swarmed Cole, striking him with their rifles and piling on his body. "Don't kill him unless it is unavoidable," the man ordered as the attack continued.
"Enough of this!" Cole's voice roared from the pile of bodies. Immediately soldier began to fly back as they were struck with energy blasts from Cole's pistols. "You people do not know who you are messing with here," he continued as the soldiers around him began to back off a bit. "You came here to kidnap children. You did not expect to find a Turk!" he shouted as he delivered a roundhouse kick to a soldier, cracking his jaw so loud everyone heard. "Do you even know what a Turk is? A Turk is a killer, plain and simple!" he continued to rant as he quickly pulled out his swords and severed several more tendons and dropped several more soldiers.
"Fall back!" the leader ordered as the remaining few soldiers who were attacking Cole pulled themselves away from the blood soaked Turk.
One soldier was limping away before he got grabbed by the back of the neck and forcibly drug backwards by Cole. "I think they need a little persuasion to leave us alone," Cole whispered in his ear as he pressed a pistol to the soldier's head. "Now the question is whether to kill you or not. I could to it so easily, I could just pull the trigger," Cole taunted as he watched the terrified look in the man's eyes.
"Cole, leave him, we need to go," Scott said as he and Rogue came up behind the Turk.
"I'll just finish with this one," Cole muttered as he stared at the man.
"If you kill him you'll just prove that what they're doing is right, don't let them win. You're better than them, Cole," Scott pleaded.
"Haven't you heard? Cole isn't here right now," Cole replied as he stared at the man. "But he wants to get you two to safety, so this man can live," he added as he holstered his gun. "Tell your people this, do not follow me. If I ever see any of your people again, I will not hesitate to crush you like the insignificant bugs you are," he whispered to the soldier before pushing him away and running into the woods with Scott and Rogue.
Vincent picked up his cell phone as it went off in his pocket. "This is Vincent," he answered as he drove cautiously towards Xavier's mansion.
"We need a pick up at the service road near the back of Xavier's place," the voice replied.
"Who is this?" Vincent asked as he sped up and headed to where the back gate of the institute was located and crashed through it. "Cole?"
"Cole's gone until this stuff they stuck us with wears off. Until then I guess I'm in charge of the body," the voice replied.
"Terrific. Who's with you?" he asked as he tried to deal with the situation.
"Scott, Rogue, Madrox, and Kurt. Only one with powers is Madrox, he's slowing down the guys chasing us a little with his duplicates. We'll be hitting the road in a minute, we can see your dust trail," Cole explained.
"Give me Scott," Vincent ordered.
"Vincent? What's going on?" he heard Scott's voice. "First we get attacked, then Cole shows up talking and nearly kills some soldiers, and now we're powerless," Scott stopped as Vincent started to explain.
"No idea about the attack, but they are US military. We're going to get everyone we can to safe houses and figure out what is going on. Listen, what you need to know about Cole is that he has two distinct personalities. The one in charge now is held in check by his void field, but it appears that the void field will be gone until his powers return. This personality is dangerous, try to keep him from killing if you can. I see a Madrox, hurry up and get to my car," he ordered as he turned his car around and half a dozen Madroxes ran towards the car.
"Only the original, the rest of you disappear," he ordered as he got out and pulled out his sniper rifle, training it on where he saw Scott and Kurt emerge from the woods. A second later Rogue tumbled out followed by Cole battling a soldier. "Damn," Vincent swore as he took aim and blew out the man's knee with a single shot. He watched in horror as he saw Cole smile back at him, then move towards the injured man. "He's going to kill him," Vincent whispered as he took another shot, grazing Cole's arm. He watched as Cole looked at him angrily then left the man alive and jogged lightly towards the car.
"Never do that again," Cole threatened as he climbed into the front with Madrox. Kurt, Scott, and Rogue piled in the back as Vincent took off. "Where are we going?" Cole asked as he popped open the glove box and started pushing buttons until the screen behind the radio changed to that of a map of the Bayville area. "Only exit is north," he pointed out as he recognized the images of troops and vehicles.
"Then we are going to Boston, try to raise Elena and Murphy and check if they are okay," Vincent ordered as he floored the gas and headed for the highway.