The Song of Eternity
Canto 8
The Mutant Underground
Verse 3
Laying Low
In strange cities,
In strange accommodations,
The situation is explained,
And ultimatums are sent.
As Vincent drove through the darkened streets of Boston, he looked in his mirrors to check on the three teens sleeping in the back seat. Rogue, Kurt, and Scott were asleep after the events of the day. Vincent had had to drive a longer than usual route, taking him close to Canada and through Maine to reach Boston from the north without alerting the authorities. The process, combined with the exertions of the youths earlier had led to the car full of two Turks and four sleeping teens. After checking once more to make sure Madrox was sleeping he saw that Cole was staring out the window with a stoic expression as he had been doing ever since they got out of Bayville. "Your powers are back, but who is in charge in that head of yours?" he asked quietly, knowing Cole would hear him.
"Cole is," Cole replied. "When the other took over, it jump started my vocal cords, so I can talk now," he replied quietly.
"This is a bad business we are in," Vincent commented as he looked at the electronic map on the dashboard directing him where to go. "These kids don't deserve this kind of a life," he added under his breath.
"We need to get on a secure communication with the others in New York and find out what is going on here," Cole said as he watched the buildings pass by.
"There's the place," Vincent said as a garage door of a warehouse opened as the car drew close and pulled in. Vincent stopped the car in front of a large concrete wall as the door closed behind them. He shut off the car and climbed out to look at the building. "Is this a joke? There's nothing here but a giant slab of concrete," Vincent said angrily as he looked around the dusty warehouse.
"Take it easy Valentine. You need to read the papers before jumping to conclusions," Cole quieted him as they noticed the kids waking up. "Blue button," Cole explained as he tossed Vincent a small remote control.
Vincent grabbed it in midair and pushed the blue button. Immediately the building came to life as the overhead lights turned on slowly. At the same time the concrete 'wall' slid into the ground to reveal a small building about half the size of the warehouse (the size of a doublewide). "Time to find out what is going on," he said as he tossed the remote back to Cole and entered the building.
When he entered he saw that the place was divided into three areas. The furthest away appeared to be a sleeping area full of cots from what he saw through the open door. The area he was in was open, but had a distinction between the kitchen area and the other area that was full of computers, television sets, and other electronics.
"Yo, Vincent, get over here," he heard the noise from a television with a camera mounted on top of it. "Turn the set on so you can see me," the voice ordered as Vincent recognized it as Murphy's. "There ya go, what took so long?" Murphy joked as Vincent saw him sitting in a similar room.
"Had to swing through Maine. Is this a secure communication?" Vincent asked as he noticed Elena in the background going over several stacks of papers.
"Uhh, lemme see," Murphy said. "Elena! This a secure communication or what?" he shouted as Cole walked by behind Vincent towards the kitchen.
Elena looked up from the papers and stared a pair of daggers at Murphy. "Yes, now go make yourself scarce," she ordered before walking over as Murphy vacated the seat. "These are all Starmore's old communication systems, so as near as I can figure from the papers and schematics I found here, everything we say on this should stay between us, it's a narrow beam satellite transmission using a hundred different encoding mechanisms at once," she stopped as Vincent cut her off.
"You had me at yes. How many do you have there?" Vincent asked as Cole poked around the refrigerator and the four teens uneasily made their way into the strange building. "Cole and I have four of Xavier's kids."
"I got Creed and Gambit out of Magneto's place and Murphy and Lance picked up Pietro and Todd, so that gives us a lucky thirteen by my count," Elena explained. "What happened out there, we saw smoke and heard all kinds of stories," Elena demanded to know.
"Let's say I had a relapse," Cole said as he walked by with a bottle of Captain Morgan in hand.
"Vincent, what happened to him? Did he kill the soldiers?" Elena asked quickly as Murphy looked on from the background with a worried expression.
"When they shot him with the darts that knock out powers, his other personality took charge. I don't think he killed anyone though, he was too busy getting the kids out of there," Vincent calmed the two of them. "I've been driving for the past nine hours, fill me in on what is going on," he ordered.
"Take it easy Vincent, this is what was played over a State of the Union speech by the president a few hours ago," Elena said as she pressed a button and here image was replaced by that of the president.
"My fellow Americans, several events have occurred earlier today that need explained. We received intelligence two days ago concerning several mutant terrorist training facilities in Bayville New York. Our forces moved in and captured many of the terrorists, but some escaped," he continued as pictured of all the missing kids and Sabertooth popped up. "We are happy to say that none of our forces were killed in the action, but saddened as the new branch of the Avengers, the Turks, who have been hiding the terrorists for some time, took it upon themselves to resists arrest and aid in their escape," he added as blurry pictures of the five Turks popped up in their suits and sunglasses.
"There will be a fifty thousand dollar reward for information leading to the capture of any of these fugitives. The United States will not tolerate terrorism within its borders. We invite the fugitives to surrender to the closest police station and you will not be harmed. I urge all of America to be strong and we will overcome this incident. Thank you," he finished as the tape ended.
"They have pictures, descriptions, and names of everyone except for me and the twins. Well, Damon too, but we have no way to know where he is, but since they are looking for him, it is a safe be that he is free with Logan," Elena explained. "They came on later saying that no one died in the battles, so I guess all the kids are okay wherever they were taken," Elena added as she yawned.
"Great, just great," Vincent muttered as he considered the situation. "Get some sleep, I need to talk to someone tonight. I'll contact you in the morning with plans," Vincent said as he turned off the television and moved to another transmitting device that he recognized and began to fiddle with the controls.
"So what do we do now?" Kurt asked as he stood uneasily by Rogue and Scott. He noted that Vincent was busy playing with some kind of transmitted and stared at Cole who was sitting back in a chair with his rapidly empting bottle of alcohol. "You sure you should be drinking that stuff?"
"Cram it elf," Cole replied coldly. "There are some beds back there, go nuts," he added before taking another drink and closing his eyes. He heard Kurt walk away, but knew that the others were still there. "What the hell do you two want?"
"What happened to you back there?" Scott asked him.
"My power is there to keep my other, more aggressive personality in check. Nothing more to it," he explained. "Now leave me alone," he threatened. He listened as Scott stomped away in anger, but sensed that Rogue was still there. "Damn it girl, what the fuck do you want?" he swore before getting to his feet and looking her in the eyes.
"What happened last night?" she asked quietly, in fear of the new Cole she saw before her.
"Nothing, now leave me alone. I'm not the person that you thought you knew. No one knows the real me," he answered before walking over to where Vincent had finally raised a communication with someone.
Vincent looked at the screen as Captain America came into view. "Vincent, what happened out there?"
"We got attacked by marines, they took most of the children," Vincent answered. "Why did this happen?"
"I don't know, we'll find out what is going on in the morning, this has got to be some sort of misunderstanding. I am going to D.C. to talk to the president tomorrow. I will fix this mess," Captain America assured him.
"Try to find if they killed any of the kids in their attacks. I need you to deliver a message in the case that this is not a misunderstanding," Vincent explained. "Tell him that we will not be hunted as animals. Tell him we will find where he took the others. Warn him not to come after us, if he does, I don't know what will happen," Vincent sighed.
"I can tell you what will happen," Cole said as he walked in behind Vincent. "I will kill every last soldier that tries to take me in. And if anyone has died, I will kill a thousand soldiers for each death," he threatened before walking away again to turn in for the night.
"I'll contact you through the Avenger's Mansion's communications tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully we can sort this out peacefully," Vincent finished before shutting down the transmitter and heading to the refrigerator to make with a Cole impression.