The Song of Eternity
Canto 8
The Mutant Underground
Verse 7
The Future
The darkness and light converge,
With the fall of the king,
Inhibitions are lost,
They are not children anymore.
When his vision cleared Vincent and the others were on a hilltop overlooking a military installation. He could hear alarms and gunfire going off and turned to check on the others. Cole had fallen to the ground and was pulling his wings back into his body. Elena, Stone, and Creed were looking down the hill at the installation.
"The professor…," Rogue whispered with tears in her eyes. "Is he dead?"
"Yes," Vincent replied as he waited impatiently for the others to arrive.
"You can bring him back, right?" Scott asked. "I've seen you use that revive spell," he said as he looked at Vincent.
"That's not how it works. It can only bring one back so far. He was too far gone," Vincent explained.
"Those Dark Riders killed him," Magneto said coldly. "And all this time I figured it would be the humans that would get us. Our own kind did this," he said quietly.
"We're here," Murphy's voice broke in as he arrived with Gambit, Avalanche, Kurt, Pietro, Jamie, and Todd. "Where's Xavier?" he asked as he handed out the energy rifles that he and the others were carrying.
"He did not survive the attack," Cole explained as the last of his wings disappeared and he unsteadily got to his feet. He took the rifle from his dumbfounded twin and glanced down at the base. "I suggest we hurry, they are getting closer to the ones they captured," he said as he headed down the hill.
"The professor is dead?" Jamie asked in disbelief.
"Yes," Scott nodded. "We need to go help them now," he added. "We can still save them," he said to himself as he headed after Cole.
"I require a weapon. Unfortunately my powers are still negated," Magneto told Murphy.
"Fine," Murphy said as he tossed him his own rifle. "I don't need it," he said before he skidded down the hill after his brother. "Hurry it up Valentine!" he shouted over his shoulder.
Vincent looked up from his conversation with Creed, Stone and Elena. "Time to go people. You kids try to stick together with Magneto. The men you are fighting are killers, do not hesitate to use lethal force," he ordered. "Do your best to keep away from Cole if you can, you don't want to get caught in his void field. Stone, you better let those soldiers know we're on their side once we get down there," he added as he took off down the hill and pulled out the Agememnon.
Scott and Rogue followed closely behind Cole, despite his silence and Vincent's warnings. "You two should get somewhere else. You won't be safe near me," Cole said as the three of them reached a chain link fence. "You mind?" he asked Scott, who blasted a hole in the fence when Cole withdrew his void field.
"We can't let you go alone," Rogue said as she gripped the guns that Cole had dropped in D.C.
"You are going to kill them when you find them, aren't you?" Scott asked as they broke into a jog and ducked behind a building.
"Yes. That is what Turks do," Cole said as he glanced down at the ground. "We need to go down here. Dukes is about fifty feet down there and something is closing in on him," he explained.
"Then stand back and let me make a hole," Scott said as he removed his visor and began to assault the ground.
Vincent took Creed and Elena with him as they entered the main compound, leaving Magneto and Stone to watch after the kids. "Who are these people attacking the base Creed? You said you knew them, but who are they," Vincent asked as they looked for an entrance to the underground part of the base.
"They call themselves the Marauders. Clones of mutants made to work for a mutant named Sinister. There will be at least one of me down there. I left Sinister's service a while back to work for Erik, but Sinister still uses my genetic material to make clones. That kid, Gambit, he's a clone me and Erik rescued when we shut down one of the labs. We'll probably see a full grown one of him in here," Creed explained.
"Great, this ought to be fun," Elena joked as she spotted a door that looked like it led down. "There's our route," she pointed out.
Magneto and Stone led the others to where Stone said the main holding cell area was. They walked into a bunker and stopped at an elevator. "Open," Stone commanded. The door didn't budge.
"The power is out here," Lance said as he pointed at the dark lights above them.
"Great, we need to get down there. Someone open it," Stone sighed as he stepped back.
"Want to shake it or boom it?" Lance asked Gambit.
"That's a big door, gonna take a while to charge. I'll leave this one to you," Gambit admitted as he stepped back.
"Here goes nothing!" Lance shouted as he stomped and began to shake the bunker. After a few seconds there was a crack in the door, but it was still in one piece. "Why don't we try blasting it?" he suggested as he caught his breath.
"On three," Magneto ordered as he Stone and Remy prepared to assault the doorway. "One, two, three," he said before he was drowned out by the blast from the energy assaults. When the smoke cleared, there was a hole large enough for a person to get through. "Powerful weapons Mr. Valentine has access to," he noted as they entered the elevator shaft and began to carefully slide down the cord.
Murphy wandered around the halls of the base looking for a sign of life. "Hello? Anyone out there?" she shouted as he thought he heard footsteps. He spun around as he definitely heard someone walking towards him in the hall behind him. "Creed? You scared the crap out of me," he said as he looked at Sabretooth dressed all in black.
"Kinda dumb of you to be walking around here all alone, isn't it kid?" Creed asked as he studied the boy in front of him.
"I wouldn't say that. I mean, since we're out of the void field I can use my magic, so I can handle myself," he laughed as he stepped narrowly out of the way of the clone's claw swipe. "Did I mention there's no way the real Creed could have made it this far already? Hell, the only reason I am here is because I can 'port myself," he explained as he became enveloped in energy and floated into the air.
"So what kid, you got a trick or two," Creed growled.
"And you? You got nothing that impresses me. You are nothing but a killer," he said coldly as he let the magic flow.
Cole's eyes got wide as Rogue watched him sprout a pair of black wings as Scott neared the bottom of the hole with his blasts. He dropped to all fours and was helped back up by Rogue before he pushed her away.
"I'm through," Scott said as he saw a concrete floor at the bottom of the hole.
"Grab on," Cole ordered. Scott and Rogue held to him tightly as he glided towards the bottom of the entrance, eventually landing on the cold floor. "Hurry, that way," he pointed down the hall towards the sound of a firefight.
"What about you?" Rogue asked as she noticed him leaning against the wall.
"Just go, or you won't make it in time," Cole said through clenched teeth.
He watched Rogue and Scott run down the hall towards where he knew the battle was taking place before letting out a deep breath. "Come on out, I know you're here," he said as someone stepped out from around the corner behind him.
"I am Harpoon," the man introduced himself. "My power is to…"
"Charge stuff with power and make it explode, I know the basics," Cole interrupted him. "Too bad for you that I am me," Cole added before turning and using his wings to propel himself down the hall at Harpoon.
Scott entered the room where the firefight was taking place at a full sprint and unleashed his optic blast at the part-metal woman that half a dozen soldiers were firing at. The woman was blasted back across the room into the wall where she collapsed to the ground. Scott and Rogue moved quickly to he soldiers who pointed their guns at the two of them. "We're on the same side here. We just want to make sure our friends are okay," Scott explained. "How many more are there?"
"We've got unconfirmed reports, since one of them messed up our computer system, but we figure somewhere between seven and fourteen," one of the soldiers replied. "So far they have not reached any of the holding cells yet, but we have experienced heavy casualties," he explained, pointing out several bodies in the room.
"We need to get all the prisoners and get out of here to some open ground," Scott said. "We should have enough firepower to take them out, or at the very least we can escape. Besides, if you let our friends out the odds will stack in our favor," he pointed out.
"Negative, the prisoners' are reinjected every four hours. They will have no powers for a few hours still," another soldier told Scott.
"Great, let's at least get them out of these bunkers so they have a chance," Scott ordered, surprising himself when one of the guards went to follow his orders.
"You pathetic children have no chance," the woman said as she unsteadily got to her feet. "I am Arclight, you will never make it out of here alive," she taunted before activating her power and causing the ground at their feet to shake.
"We'll see about that," Rogue muttered as she regained her footing and fired the gun she took off of Cole in Washington. The energy blast knocked Arclight back, stunning her. "Any time you boys are ready!" she shouted at Scott and the soldiers who immediately opened fire.
Arclight was pummeled back into the wall by the blasts until she activated her power and knocked the combatants off balance. "Time to get buried alive!" she screamed as the room began to shake and parts of the roof started to crash down. Suddenly the shaking stopped and Arclight looked at her hands in disbelief. "What is happening?"
"That would be me," Cole replied as he looked on from the doorway. His wings were bloodied and damaged from the knife that Harpoon had used on him before Cole finished him with his own weapon. "Might as well bring your friend out of hiding too," he said as another woman seemed to fall out of Arclight. Cole shuffled over to Rogue and took his gun from her. "You need to turn it the whole way up for it to really be effective," he commented as he pushed a button. "See," he said coldly as he fired at the two Marauders. "There are seven more out there," he said once he was sure that they were dead. "Murphy's got one of them almost gone now and the others are closing in on the last of them. So let's get our people and get out of here," he said before falling to his knees.
"Are you okay?" Rogue asked as she crouched next to him.
"Too many wings, too short time," Cole answered before closing his eyes and collapsing.
Vincent, Elena, and Sabretooth entered a room to find unknown mutants rapidly advancing through a small defense of soldiers towards a set of cells. "That's Blockbuster, Riptide, and the original Gambit, I think," Creed growled.
"Good, let me get their attention," Vincent said as he took aim and hit the huge man, Blockbuster, in the back with a fire spell.
The three of the turned to face their new threats. "Creed, nice to see you again mon' ami," Gambit taunted. "Come to join the fun?"
"I'll give you fun!" Creed growled as he faced off against the Cajun.
"You can have the big one, he's strong, but slow," Vincent said to Elena.
"So, chivalry really is dead," Elena muttered as she gripped her pistol.
"Ha, think you have a chance against me, puny woman?" Blockbuster laughed.
"You're asking for it," Elena replied angrily. "You can probably take a bullet or two, but as long as I keep firing at you, eventually I will stop you," she said as she started to fire at the man's face.
Creed and Gambit went at each other at full speed, energy packed cards versus claws and a healing factor. They both knew the other's skills and movements so well that it was a deadlock for a bit. But in the end, strength and claws beat speed and finesse. "Ya lousy clone," Creed spat as he turned to check on the others.
Vincent stared at the man called riptide calmly. "Time to die, little man," Riptide taunted as he twirled his body at super speed and launched several shruiken at Vincent.
"Is that it?" Vincent asked as he watched the projectiles fall to the ground off of his barrier spell. "The problem with this world is quite simple," he continued as he walked at his stunned foe. "You all think you can change the world, do whatever you want, regardless of the consequences. In my day we were content to live normal lives. In Avalanche we could have taken over the world a hundred times over, but we were happy to live out our lives in peace," he kept talking as Riptide backed away from him. "But the problem is, no matter how powerful you think you are, someone else is will rise to defeat you," Vincent finished as he pointed the Agememnon at Riptide. "You aren't anywhere near my level, boy," Vincent finished before shooting Riptide.
"Stay down!" Elena shouted as she kept firing at Blockbuster's face at point blank range until the man stopped moving. "You get the next big one Valentine," she said as she poked the body to make sure he was dead.
Stone, Magneto, Lance, Remy, Pietro, Todd, Kurt, and Jamie followed the sound of gunfire to another group of cells. "Three of them, soldiers are done for though," Pietro said after running in and out of the room in a second. "They're almost at the cells," he added.
"No time to waste then," Stone said as he entered the room with gun drawn. "Back away from the cells you three," he ordered the last three Marauders. The Marauders turned as if to laugh at the human before noticing he was not alone. One was gifted with a crystalline body, another had a vest covered with various gun components and a pistol in each hand, and the third looked normal.
"You must be joking," said the third as he raised his hand at the group, but dropped to the ground after taking a bullet from Stone.
"You don't know who you are messing with," replied the first one.
"A bunch of fools who are going to lose their lives," Magneto replied as he pointed his gun at the remaining two. The room exploded in a fury of light and sound from so many mutant powers and weapons being discharged until the body count was three.
Note from the author—
Oooooh: Russian and Arabic are kicking my ass, but I will try to get the next cantos up faster than this. It kinda just drug on longer and duller than expected. Anyway the next canto will clean up these loose ends and be told from the first person view, mainly centering on the Turks.(minus Chaos who disappeared)