Back to borrowed characters
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Jen was sitting at home with one Toad, and she was not happy about it. All the others were out turning Philadelphia into a city of mutants and she didn't get to go because Magneto had been afraid that the X-Men would kidnap her.
"What's happening now?" she asked.
"The Apparatus is still running. There's nothing stopping us. Nothing has changed." Toad was starting to get exasperated. "If something changes I promise I'll tell you."
She crossed her arms and frowned. Why was it only her who wasn't allowed to go? Magneto had gone, and that was after she had made two more copies of him! He was far more likely to have a problem than she was. Still, she knew not to argue the point with him. She had been thrown in the cell once, and she had been careful not to upset him ever since.
All she could do was remember back to the second news story, back to all the chaos and confusion. She hadn't liked looking at the images of the injuries people had suffered, but Magneto had reminded her that it was only humans who had gotten injured, humans who, like the boys back at school, would have liked nothing better than to injure or kill HER. And the fact was that the rest of it, the confusion and sounds of worry, all of that made her excited. She had at least partially caused all of that to happen. She had made it possible to turn three cities of people into mutants like her. She had helped make history. She couldn't help but be proud of that.
"There," said Toad, "it's off. He's dead."
"Is another one going to go in also?"
"Not necessary. We're packing up now."
"Okay. Is he still doing okay? I only just made those copies and now one of him is dead and he isn't that young anymore..." She couldn't help but remember the time one of her had died. It was by far the worst experience of her life. Feeling the car throw her off her feet even as her legs broke, feeling her face hit the windshield...She hadn't even been able to look at cars for a week or two after that. And considering that Magneto had now had four copies die...
"He says he's fine, but you never know with that old bugger."
"We're not doing it again for a little while, right?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no. Right now we're deciding on our next target. A right big city like Chicago would be nice but it won't be a skip through the park to get the Apparatus there. Since we've got it in Jersey now it's tempting to keep it around there."
"Well I think we should stop for now anyway. What if the next time he can't take it? What if all of him dies?"
"There are some people who would argue that's a good thing." Toad was staring off into space, thinking.
"What? Are you talking about the X-Men?"
"No. They would think it was a good thing if he suddenly turned around and decided to allow the humans to walk all over us. No, I was thinking of a certain soldier man who's been rattling the cage for more protection against mutants."
"What does that mean?"
"It means he might just decide where we bring it next. If he goes to Baltimore maybe Baltimore will find itself with a few more mutants than it had before. It's just too bad he stays away from cities so often."
Jen didn't know what to say to that. She didn't think they were afraid of any one human; why would they put that much effort into changing this man? Besides, they had changed only one human before. "What about Senator Kelly? Couldn't you just grab this guy liked you grabbed him?"
"Senator Kelly didn't have an entourage specifically trained to hunt down and kill mutants. But it's still a possibility. We've been working on it. We'll continue to work on it."
Jen sighed. "So how long before they know about Philadelphia?"
"I imagine there are those in Philadelphia who already know about it."
"Is it going to be on the news?"
"Yes, but it probably won't be much of any affair. At this point I suppose they've gotten used to the idea that they're under attack with white waves of energy, and now they'll be more interested in figuring out just what it is. That and they'll report the explosions. They're more interested in those than in the waves themselves."
"Do you think they'll figure out what's happening soon? People are already changing; how many people have to change before they figure it out?"
"I don't know. Probably a lot; they're not going to want to believe it."
Jen smiled. "No. I guess they won't."
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He found he was too tired to be able to think multiple things at once anymore. He still felt like it was impossible for him to move and no amount of movement would convince him otherwise, at least for a day or so. It was so hard, every time he did it. He had felt himself being literally drained of energy to the point of death by exhaustion four times now. He thought that after the second or third time it would be slightly more bearable, but even after the fourth it was no better. It was still horrific, and it still brought memories of being strapped down and experimented on by Nazi "doctors" no matter how hard he fought the images. It was worse, in fact, than those experiments, because in those days often enough he had been able to find some stray piece of metal and he would use it to kill them or at least stop them from torturing him. Now the torture used his power; he had no hope of doing a thing to stop it. Nevertheless, that was not the worst part. The worst part was afterward, as he faced it again. It was as he stood in it, allowed it to grip his hands once more. He knew what awaited him but allowed it to happen anyway.
Now he was sitting in a truck with his torture device and his own dead body. He looked at the old body. He had looked out of those eyes until minutes ago, had felt with those hands until minutes ago. Now it was nothing. It was not a person. It was not the symbol of a person, the remembrance of a person, since here was the person himself sitting before it. It was not even a piece of meat, since it was the body of a human and that would have been cannibalism. It was trash. Trash just like at the death camp, where such trash had stood in towering piles.
He wondered whether anyone still questioned his motives. Whether Charles, the only person whose opinion mattered in the least, still questioned his motives. Was there any way to dispute it at this point, when he had already submitted himself to unimaginable torment four times for his cause? Would Charles have been able to do the same? Soft Charles, who had had such difficulty with the mean bullies thinking bad thoughts at him? Surely that had been as bad as his own time at the death camp. He closed his eyes, imagining Charles' face. There was no arguing that the man had the best interests of his little runaway mutants in mind, but he had never experienced the cold, hard reality of the outer bounds of human hatred.
Now, with this talk of passing the Mutant Registration Act into law, he knew he was right in moving against the humans before his déjà vu became too complete.
"I have confirmed Stryker's movements for the next two weeks," said Raven from next to him. Well, to be precise, she was between two of him.
"And?"
"There is no suitable target, but there is an opportunity to bring him to us if we use two or three of me and one of you."
"For his metallic assistant." He had never had personal contact with her, but he looked forward to it. What better way to help him shake off his torpor than to hold a person actually made of that wonderful metal, adamantium? He still remembered his three meetings with Wolverine with fondness.
"Very well. We will discuss it."
"Shall we move it to the next location?"
"I am not yet decided which city shall be our next."
She agreed. "Best for you to get some rest."
If there was one other person in the world who understood what it took to enter that machine it was Raven. She was his prize student, and in all likelihood she was the only one he would have sacrificed his life for. By comparison Jen was a spoiled brat who had lived her entire life in comfort. She had only taken part in this most recent campaign because it was fun, because it would earn her a spot on the news and her fifteen minutes of fame. Nevertheless she had been vital, and he had to admit that he did feel some sort of affection for her. Human emotions were complicated, and as much as he told himself he was not human and therefore would not have them, he did. Mutants were not so removed from humans that they could overcome that eternal folly. Eventually, perhaps. For the time it was enough that his Apparatus was working, and humans were experiencing mutation on an appreciably large scale.
He was back to considering his options for the next location when a commotion disturbed him. It was Toad.
"They're at the base! They've attacked us!"
"Charles' students?"
"Yes. They're inside now."
It galled him. Charles would attack his base? Merely to take Jen? It was so unlike him to put his students at unnecessary risk. He was inclined to let them have her, just to show them that she was no longer necessary to his success. He would merely have to be careful with his last four selves. On the other hand, allowing them to have her would tell Charles that he had the right to walk in whenever he wanted and take whatever he pleased. That was not acceptable.
"Toad, hold them off. Two Mystiques and the second Sabretooth are within range and will arrive shortly to clean up. Kill them only if you must."
He lay back again, and looked over the Raven with him. She would enjoy the opportunity to defeat Charles' students once again. He had to wonder whether she would allow them to escape this time, especially Wolverine and Jean Grey. That night on the Statue of Liberty Wolverine had angered her in a way few have been able to do in recent years, and Jean Grey, with her flawless appearance, had long been a target of Raven's jealousy. It was understandable, really. Now it would be up to her to decide what would become of those she hated. Interesting.
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As far as Jen was concerned it all happened very fast. One moment Toad was telling her to get down and not make any noise, and the next she was picked up by a man she immediately recognized with a kind of feeling that her blood was freezing over: Cyclops.
She had screamed and kicked and clawed at his visor like she had been taught, but it was no use. There was a flash of red light and everything went black.
When she woke up she was on some kind of table and she couldn't move her arms or legs. Fear grabbed and throttled her, so much that she decided she had to duplicate herself out.
She told herself it wouldn't be hard, that it would be the only way for her to get out of there, but she still couldn't quite force herself to do it. She kept getting flashes of the accident, of being crushed by the car. It didn't even matter that there was no danger here, that she could duplicate, free herself, and reform. It was just too hard. That was before anyone came, though.
"Good morning," said a woman's voice, and she turned to see Jean Grey entering the room. She wore a lab coat, and she was terrifying.
That view was enough. She duplicated and her copy fell off the table. She leapt up and began working on the straps holding the other version of her to the table.
"Hey!" called the woman behind her.
She duplicated again and this time she had the copy turn toward the woman, ready to fight if necessary.
"Where are you going to go?" asked Jean Grey. She didn't make any move to prevent Jen from freeing herself.
"Home!"
"To Magneto and the Brotherhood?"
"Yes!" She took a step toward the woman threateningly, who merely stared back.
Finally she was free, and she rejoined the original and the copy who had set to work freeing her. She turned both of her remaining selves to face the woman.
"Look, I'm not going to attack you. I just want to talk to you."
"You kidnapped me!"
"If you insist we will let you go, but please listen first."
That was the last thing she wanted to do. These were the X-Men, the mutant traitors. Magneto and Toad had both made it very clear that she shouldn't talk to them, especially not Xavier himself. On the plus side they were weak, and if she demanded it they would let her go. She just hoped Toad and Magneto had been right.
"Please let me go."
"Alright. Alright."
Jen reformed and walked cautiously over to the woman, who turned and led her out of the lab. She had only made it halfway down the first hall when she heard him.
"People will die," someone whispered. "Do not help them kill." She looked around but each time the whisper seemed to come from just behind her. "Those people are innocent."
"Stop that!" she yelled. "I know who you are!"
"Does that make me wrong?" asked the whispering voice.
"Yes!"
"You do not want to be a murderer."
"I'm not!" Even as she said it, though, she remembered what Magneto had said when he told Mystique to let the first set of bombs go. He had all but said that people would die. Was she responsible for that?
"They have been lying to you."
"Why would I believe you?"
"That machine is lethal."
"It makes people mutants."
"It kills them. Remember the news. Remember what they said on the news."
"They didn't know what was happening."
"But they did know that people were dying."
She couldn't help but recall that first time on the news, when the woman said heart attacks, strokes, and other medical problems had become much more common. But that wasn't a lot of people; a whole lot more of them would just become mutants like they were supposed to.
"People have only begun to die," said the whispering voice.
"Professor?" asked Jean Grey in a surprised kind of tone. She was still walking in front of Jen.
"It is a harsh truth," the whispering voice continued, "but it is a truth you must face."
"I don't believe you."
"You will see."
"I'm leaving!"
"Perhaps you should stay until you see the real results of Magneto's machine."
"You can't keep me here." She poured cold hatred into her words.
The whispering voices stopped. Maybe that was a good sign.
"Professor, are you sure?" asked Jean Grey to the air.
She was starting to really annoy Jen. She could see why Toad and Mystique didn't like the woman; she was just so perfect. She was a mutant, but it didn't even make people look at her funny much less attack her for being different. Compared to Mystique she had it all.
Before she could really think it over she acted. She jumped forward, grabbed the woman's arm, and duplicated her. Then she duplicated her again, and again. And three more times. At first the woman had only thrown out her arms to steady herself, but by about the fourth copy or so she was swaying on her feet, and she passed out cold onto the floor after the sixth copy. Jen reached down and rejoined all of the unconscious Jean Greys, then stepped over the remaining form and walked to the end of the hall.
When she got there she found to her disappointment that the only way out was an elevator. They would probably be able to shut that down, keep her trapped in it. She turned back and looked all around for another way out.
"You will not find a way out by yourself. It you talk to me, though, I will allow you to leave." The whispering voice was back.
"Ha!" She walked back to the red-headed woman in the hall. "The room I just came out of is a lab. How long will it take me to find a scalpel in there?"
"Do not do this. This is not you."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Would you be able to live with it if you were to injure or kill Dr. Grey?"
Jen didn't know what to say to that. The answer was no, but it wouldn't help for them to know that. She just had to get out of there, no matter what.
"I am telepathic, Jen."
"Crap."
"I am sending someone down there to talk to you. Please do not attack her, and she will not attack you."
She wondered whether Magneto realized that she wouldn't have been taken at all if he had just let her go to Philadelphia with them.
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Jen was sitting at home with one Toad, and she was not happy about it. All the others were out turning Philadelphia into a city of mutants and she didn't get to go because Magneto had been afraid that the X-Men would kidnap her.
"What's happening now?" she asked.
"The Apparatus is still running. There's nothing stopping us. Nothing has changed." Toad was starting to get exasperated. "If something changes I promise I'll tell you."
She crossed her arms and frowned. Why was it only her who wasn't allowed to go? Magneto had gone, and that was after she had made two more copies of him! He was far more likely to have a problem than she was. Still, she knew not to argue the point with him. She had been thrown in the cell once, and she had been careful not to upset him ever since.
All she could do was remember back to the second news story, back to all the chaos and confusion. She hadn't liked looking at the images of the injuries people had suffered, but Magneto had reminded her that it was only humans who had gotten injured, humans who, like the boys back at school, would have liked nothing better than to injure or kill HER. And the fact was that the rest of it, the confusion and sounds of worry, all of that made her excited. She had at least partially caused all of that to happen. She had made it possible to turn three cities of people into mutants like her. She had helped make history. She couldn't help but be proud of that.
"There," said Toad, "it's off. He's dead."
"Is another one going to go in also?"
"Not necessary. We're packing up now."
"Okay. Is he still doing okay? I only just made those copies and now one of him is dead and he isn't that young anymore..." She couldn't help but remember the time one of her had died. It was by far the worst experience of her life. Feeling the car throw her off her feet even as her legs broke, feeling her face hit the windshield...She hadn't even been able to look at cars for a week or two after that. And considering that Magneto had now had four copies die...
"He says he's fine, but you never know with that old bugger."
"We're not doing it again for a little while, right?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no. Right now we're deciding on our next target. A right big city like Chicago would be nice but it won't be a skip through the park to get the Apparatus there. Since we've got it in Jersey now it's tempting to keep it around there."
"Well I think we should stop for now anyway. What if the next time he can't take it? What if all of him dies?"
"There are some people who would argue that's a good thing." Toad was staring off into space, thinking.
"What? Are you talking about the X-Men?"
"No. They would think it was a good thing if he suddenly turned around and decided to allow the humans to walk all over us. No, I was thinking of a certain soldier man who's been rattling the cage for more protection against mutants."
"What does that mean?"
"It means he might just decide where we bring it next. If he goes to Baltimore maybe Baltimore will find itself with a few more mutants than it had before. It's just too bad he stays away from cities so often."
Jen didn't know what to say to that. She didn't think they were afraid of any one human; why would they put that much effort into changing this man? Besides, they had changed only one human before. "What about Senator Kelly? Couldn't you just grab this guy liked you grabbed him?"
"Senator Kelly didn't have an entourage specifically trained to hunt down and kill mutants. But it's still a possibility. We've been working on it. We'll continue to work on it."
Jen sighed. "So how long before they know about Philadelphia?"
"I imagine there are those in Philadelphia who already know about it."
"Is it going to be on the news?"
"Yes, but it probably won't be much of any affair. At this point I suppose they've gotten used to the idea that they're under attack with white waves of energy, and now they'll be more interested in figuring out just what it is. That and they'll report the explosions. They're more interested in those than in the waves themselves."
"Do you think they'll figure out what's happening soon? People are already changing; how many people have to change before they figure it out?"
"I don't know. Probably a lot; they're not going to want to believe it."
Jen smiled. "No. I guess they won't."
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He found he was too tired to be able to think multiple things at once anymore. He still felt like it was impossible for him to move and no amount of movement would convince him otherwise, at least for a day or so. It was so hard, every time he did it. He had felt himself being literally drained of energy to the point of death by exhaustion four times now. He thought that after the second or third time it would be slightly more bearable, but even after the fourth it was no better. It was still horrific, and it still brought memories of being strapped down and experimented on by Nazi "doctors" no matter how hard he fought the images. It was worse, in fact, than those experiments, because in those days often enough he had been able to find some stray piece of metal and he would use it to kill them or at least stop them from torturing him. Now the torture used his power; he had no hope of doing a thing to stop it. Nevertheless, that was not the worst part. The worst part was afterward, as he faced it again. It was as he stood in it, allowed it to grip his hands once more. He knew what awaited him but allowed it to happen anyway.
Now he was sitting in a truck with his torture device and his own dead body. He looked at the old body. He had looked out of those eyes until minutes ago, had felt with those hands until minutes ago. Now it was nothing. It was not a person. It was not the symbol of a person, the remembrance of a person, since here was the person himself sitting before it. It was not even a piece of meat, since it was the body of a human and that would have been cannibalism. It was trash. Trash just like at the death camp, where such trash had stood in towering piles.
He wondered whether anyone still questioned his motives. Whether Charles, the only person whose opinion mattered in the least, still questioned his motives. Was there any way to dispute it at this point, when he had already submitted himself to unimaginable torment four times for his cause? Would Charles have been able to do the same? Soft Charles, who had had such difficulty with the mean bullies thinking bad thoughts at him? Surely that had been as bad as his own time at the death camp. He closed his eyes, imagining Charles' face. There was no arguing that the man had the best interests of his little runaway mutants in mind, but he had never experienced the cold, hard reality of the outer bounds of human hatred.
Now, with this talk of passing the Mutant Registration Act into law, he knew he was right in moving against the humans before his déjà vu became too complete.
"I have confirmed Stryker's movements for the next two weeks," said Raven from next to him. Well, to be precise, she was between two of him.
"And?"
"There is no suitable target, but there is an opportunity to bring him to us if we use two or three of me and one of you."
"For his metallic assistant." He had never had personal contact with her, but he looked forward to it. What better way to help him shake off his torpor than to hold a person actually made of that wonderful metal, adamantium? He still remembered his three meetings with Wolverine with fondness.
"Very well. We will discuss it."
"Shall we move it to the next location?"
"I am not yet decided which city shall be our next."
She agreed. "Best for you to get some rest."
If there was one other person in the world who understood what it took to enter that machine it was Raven. She was his prize student, and in all likelihood she was the only one he would have sacrificed his life for. By comparison Jen was a spoiled brat who had lived her entire life in comfort. She had only taken part in this most recent campaign because it was fun, because it would earn her a spot on the news and her fifteen minutes of fame. Nevertheless she had been vital, and he had to admit that he did feel some sort of affection for her. Human emotions were complicated, and as much as he told himself he was not human and therefore would not have them, he did. Mutants were not so removed from humans that they could overcome that eternal folly. Eventually, perhaps. For the time it was enough that his Apparatus was working, and humans were experiencing mutation on an appreciably large scale.
He was back to considering his options for the next location when a commotion disturbed him. It was Toad.
"They're at the base! They've attacked us!"
"Charles' students?"
"Yes. They're inside now."
It galled him. Charles would attack his base? Merely to take Jen? It was so unlike him to put his students at unnecessary risk. He was inclined to let them have her, just to show them that she was no longer necessary to his success. He would merely have to be careful with his last four selves. On the other hand, allowing them to have her would tell Charles that he had the right to walk in whenever he wanted and take whatever he pleased. That was not acceptable.
"Toad, hold them off. Two Mystiques and the second Sabretooth are within range and will arrive shortly to clean up. Kill them only if you must."
He lay back again, and looked over the Raven with him. She would enjoy the opportunity to defeat Charles' students once again. He had to wonder whether she would allow them to escape this time, especially Wolverine and Jean Grey. That night on the Statue of Liberty Wolverine had angered her in a way few have been able to do in recent years, and Jean Grey, with her flawless appearance, had long been a target of Raven's jealousy. It was understandable, really. Now it would be up to her to decide what would become of those she hated. Interesting.
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As far as Jen was concerned it all happened very fast. One moment Toad was telling her to get down and not make any noise, and the next she was picked up by a man she immediately recognized with a kind of feeling that her blood was freezing over: Cyclops.
She had screamed and kicked and clawed at his visor like she had been taught, but it was no use. There was a flash of red light and everything went black.
When she woke up she was on some kind of table and she couldn't move her arms or legs. Fear grabbed and throttled her, so much that she decided she had to duplicate herself out.
She told herself it wouldn't be hard, that it would be the only way for her to get out of there, but she still couldn't quite force herself to do it. She kept getting flashes of the accident, of being crushed by the car. It didn't even matter that there was no danger here, that she could duplicate, free herself, and reform. It was just too hard. That was before anyone came, though.
"Good morning," said a woman's voice, and she turned to see Jean Grey entering the room. She wore a lab coat, and she was terrifying.
That view was enough. She duplicated and her copy fell off the table. She leapt up and began working on the straps holding the other version of her to the table.
"Hey!" called the woman behind her.
She duplicated again and this time she had the copy turn toward the woman, ready to fight if necessary.
"Where are you going to go?" asked Jean Grey. She didn't make any move to prevent Jen from freeing herself.
"Home!"
"To Magneto and the Brotherhood?"
"Yes!" She took a step toward the woman threateningly, who merely stared back.
Finally she was free, and she rejoined the original and the copy who had set to work freeing her. She turned both of her remaining selves to face the woman.
"Look, I'm not going to attack you. I just want to talk to you."
"You kidnapped me!"
"If you insist we will let you go, but please listen first."
That was the last thing she wanted to do. These were the X-Men, the mutant traitors. Magneto and Toad had both made it very clear that she shouldn't talk to them, especially not Xavier himself. On the plus side they were weak, and if she demanded it they would let her go. She just hoped Toad and Magneto had been right.
"Please let me go."
"Alright. Alright."
Jen reformed and walked cautiously over to the woman, who turned and led her out of the lab. She had only made it halfway down the first hall when she heard him.
"People will die," someone whispered. "Do not help them kill." She looked around but each time the whisper seemed to come from just behind her. "Those people are innocent."
"Stop that!" she yelled. "I know who you are!"
"Does that make me wrong?" asked the whispering voice.
"Yes!"
"You do not want to be a murderer."
"I'm not!" Even as she said it, though, she remembered what Magneto had said when he told Mystique to let the first set of bombs go. He had all but said that people would die. Was she responsible for that?
"They have been lying to you."
"Why would I believe you?"
"That machine is lethal."
"It makes people mutants."
"It kills them. Remember the news. Remember what they said on the news."
"They didn't know what was happening."
"But they did know that people were dying."
She couldn't help but recall that first time on the news, when the woman said heart attacks, strokes, and other medical problems had become much more common. But that wasn't a lot of people; a whole lot more of them would just become mutants like they were supposed to.
"People have only begun to die," said the whispering voice.
"Professor?" asked Jean Grey in a surprised kind of tone. She was still walking in front of Jen.
"It is a harsh truth," the whispering voice continued, "but it is a truth you must face."
"I don't believe you."
"You will see."
"I'm leaving!"
"Perhaps you should stay until you see the real results of Magneto's machine."
"You can't keep me here." She poured cold hatred into her words.
The whispering voices stopped. Maybe that was a good sign.
"Professor, are you sure?" asked Jean Grey to the air.
She was starting to really annoy Jen. She could see why Toad and Mystique didn't like the woman; she was just so perfect. She was a mutant, but it didn't even make people look at her funny much less attack her for being different. Compared to Mystique she had it all.
Before she could really think it over she acted. She jumped forward, grabbed the woman's arm, and duplicated her. Then she duplicated her again, and again. And three more times. At first the woman had only thrown out her arms to steady herself, but by about the fourth copy or so she was swaying on her feet, and she passed out cold onto the floor after the sixth copy. Jen reached down and rejoined all of the unconscious Jean Greys, then stepped over the remaining form and walked to the end of the hall.
When she got there she found to her disappointment that the only way out was an elevator. They would probably be able to shut that down, keep her trapped in it. She turned back and looked all around for another way out.
"You will not find a way out by yourself. It you talk to me, though, I will allow you to leave." The whispering voice was back.
"Ha!" She walked back to the red-headed woman in the hall. "The room I just came out of is a lab. How long will it take me to find a scalpel in there?"
"Do not do this. This is not you."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Would you be able to live with it if you were to injure or kill Dr. Grey?"
Jen didn't know what to say to that. The answer was no, but it wouldn't help for them to know that. She just had to get out of there, no matter what.
"I am telepathic, Jen."
"Crap."
"I am sending someone down there to talk to you. Please do not attack her, and she will not attack you."
She wondered whether Magneto realized that she wouldn't have been taken at all if he had just let her go to Philadelphia with them.