Chapter 5 – Feet, Don't Fail me Now!
The flight to Sacramento was very short, but in other ways was also very long. Logan had many questions but knew it wasn't the time to ask. He above all else knew when to focus on the mission and used the time to get his mindset back in top shape.
"Not waitin' fer backup eh?"
"The satellite images Bishop downloaded showed light security. I can handle it."
"Don't you mean 'WE' Darlin'?"
She didn't answer – prompting Logan to stop asking questions.
"Head south, 3 degrees; then follow the river." Coming into Sacramento, they saw the industrial area and the 6 buildings in the satellite pics. They also saw the helicopter on the helipad next to one of the facilities - a 2-story building just off the river's edge. Both stories had floor to ceiling windows with a very modern style of architecture. Just as Bishop said, it was a secured facility; but not heavily fortified like the prison. Most of the security consisted of its isolated location – it was in an area of Sacramento that few people traveled to. Old Man relied on its seclusion as its main means of secrecy. The only real security was a guard post at the entrance and electronic defense measures attached to the building. Had Storm not spotted the helicopter, they would have had a hard time distinguishing it from the other buildings in the area. Bishop's idea of marking the chopper worked perfectly.
Storm told Wolverine to head for the helipad.
"As soon as you land, make sure both of the choppers are disabled." she ordered, the then walked back to the open cargo door.
"What ya got planned Darlin'?" Logan asked.
"I plan to announce our presence." she said in a very forceful tone. She then jumped into the darkness of the night, dropping nearly 100 feet before allowing a gust of wind to carry her to the roof of the facility. Logan headed for the helipad and watched as Storm elegantly landed near an electrical sub station. Just before she landed, Logan saw her start glowing – not her hands like he had seen before; but her whole body – something that greatly troubled him. He saw her literally grab hold of a capacitor – something that would have fried a normal human being and most mutants. Within seconds the entire capacitor started glowing icy hot. Sparks flew as the unit overloaded with energy. There was a small explosion then the entire facility went completely dark.
"That's my girl!" Logan said with a smirk. As soon as the power went out, the back-up generator kicked in providing emergency electricity to key areas. Storm heard the emergency generator kick in behind her and quickly silenced it with an energy blast. The entire facility was now completely dark.
"That'll make security think twice about takin' her on." Logan said. He landed on the helipad and with a quick slice through some fuel lines, both choppers were disabled. Finding Storm was pretty easy for Wolverine and his keen senses. All he had to do was look at the only thing glowing in the entire area. He quickly rejoined her and prepared for the infiltration of the building.
"The direct approach eh Ro? What next – storm the building?"
"No – I have a better idea." she said – taking off into the air and flying to the NE corner of the building. "You may want to cover your ears. This will be loud." she yelled to Logan.
"What'll be lou…" Just then she let loose a blast so loud that every window on the northern and eastern sides completely shattered. The blast was so loud it knocked Logan off his feet. "Damn! She wasn't lying" he yelled, holding his ears. His super sense of hearing definitely left his head ringing.
She then flew to the SW side of the building and let loose an equally impressive blast. Within seconds, every window in the building had been completely shattered and the interior of the building had been exposed.
"LEAVE OR DIE!" she yelled. "THOSE ARE YOUR OPTIONS" she told everyone in the building. The 2 guards that came with Old Man, along with 4 others from the facility, were the first to respond. They had all taken aim at Storm from a second floor corner office but had yet to fire. Old Man was there as well – kneeling behind the guards.
"Wat'll we do Cap?" One said – showing significant doubt about his next actions.
"You wanna die?" The C.O. said. "The pay is good, but ya can't spend it if you're dead." He then put the safety on his Carbine and shouldered it. "Good luck Old Man. You're gonna need it!" he said as he lit a cigar and walked away.
"Get back here!" Old Man yelled. "I'm paying you! GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT! PROTECT ME!"
"Against her? You saw what she did in Vacaville. What am I supposed ta use – harsh language? Besides – I'm sure Wolverine is free by now; and I DON'T wanna be here when he comes knockin' at the door." Each guard shouldered their weapons and followed the C.O. out of the office toward the helipad. There were several other workers in the building that took the opportunity to leave. From her altitude, Storm saw and allowed each person to peacefully exit the building – until she saw 2 men walking out in lab coats. Two energy blasts literally inches away from their feet stopped them cold in their track.
"YOU TWO STAY!" she yelled. She then flew down to meet them. "Where is Old Man?"
"The last time I saw him, he was in his office." one responded. "Second floor on the SE side of the building."
"Where are the children?" she commanded.
"Lower level. The lab is in the lower level. Nobody else is down there."
Meanwhile at the helipad, the 6 guards had just made it back to the Defender and tried to start it.
"Something's wrong!" The C.O. yelled. "Check the engine." Five of the 6 guards got out of the chopper and started checking it out. Two of the 5 tried to start the Huey but had no luck.
SNIKT
Each man knew exactly what that sound was and quickly drew their weapons.
"Told ya this wasn't over Bub!" Logan yelled to the C.O.
"I figured I'd run in to you again Wolverine." The C.O. said rather calmly, still puffing on his cigar.
"You figured right. Now um gonna collect on that bill you owe."
"You're a good adversary." The C.O. continued. "Having a man like you on my team would be well worth it... What say you join us?" he said, confidently puffing on his cigar. The men could see Logan's silhouette quietly stalking them as if he was about to pounce.
"Hah – you got nerve, I'll give ya that. But the only team you'll be joinin' is the one goin' straight ta hell."
"I don't think so…'" he responded. You see, I expected to see you again."
"And…?"
"And I prepared a little surprise for ya." he said as he pulled a small timer from his chest pocket and tossed it to Logan."
"Whuzzat? A timer…with 8 minutes left on it."
"Yeah – 8 minutes till the lab goes up. And only I know where the kill switch is."
"So that means I got 8 minutes to kill ya and sniff out the trigger…that's 7 minutes longer than I need."
"Yeah – you can do that, but I'm wired…you use those claws and cut ANY wire on me, the entire lab goes up. I call it INSURANCE."
"So where's the trigger?"
"It's in the safe – second floor, center of the building. Oh – it's encased in 8 inches of titanium. I have no doubt you can slice through it…it'll take ya about 7 minutes. Ya better hurry…BUB."
"This ain't over!" Logan yelled, heading for the building.
"Yes it is." The C.O. said with a chuckle as he and his 5 guards headed for the parking lot.
Logan made it to the center of the building in less than 30 seconds. With his animal keen eyesight, he had no problem traversing the architecture of the facility. He located the safe and madly started slicing at the hinges. Had they been external hinges, he would have been inside the safe in mere seconds, but the internal hinges were encased in titanium. It took him a good 4 minutes to get through the door. The inside of the safe was pitch black except for a small box with a blinking red light on it. Logan grabbed it and ran to the moonlight shining in from the broken window to see what it was. It looked to be a transmitter but when Logan pushed the button, the light continued to flash. Shit! he yelled to himself. He quickly pulled the back off the transmitter and looked inside. All he saw was a battery attached to a light and a small note folded inside. The note read "Seeya around…BUB." Logan laughed at how easily he had been suckered. There never was a bomb. The C.O. was a professional mercenary. Either he didn't want to waste the explosives or he saw no real reason to kill anyone he wasn't hired to kill. Either way, it was clear that he only needed the diversion to give him enough time to get away from Logan; which he did.
Meanwhile outside the building…
"Take me to Old Man!" Storm yelled to the 2 scientists. Both men walked back into the building with her. Storm lit the way as they walked up the central staircase to the second floor. Just as they exited the staircase, shots fired in their direction. One scientist let out a blood-curdling yell as he was hit and killed instantly. The other scientist dove for cover. Storm saw the muzzle flash and threw 2 energy blasts in that direction. Though her blasts were extremely accurate, neither penetrated Old Man's shield.
She turned to the remaining scientist and hit him with an energy blast. It wasn't strong enough to kill him, but it knocked him unconscious. She then turned toward Old Man and her hands started glowing again. Within a few seconds the glow had spread from her hands and lightening again encompassed her whole body. She calmly and forcefully walked down the hall. Old Man emptied an entire magazine from his Colt .45 semi-auto. He quickly reloaded and emptied another magazine into her. None of his bullets penetrated her energy field. She heard the unmistakable click of an empty chamber and gave him a slight grin. Just then, she threw an incredible energy blast at him. It didn't penetrate his shield, but it did knock him back several feet. She quickly followed up with 2 more blasts…each draining his shield a little more. She saw the device on Old Man's arm. It was very similar to the one Benson used against her and the other X-Men at the Castle lab. Seeing it, she sent 2 more blasts directly at it. The second one overloaded the shield, and in a flash of blue light, the shield disappeared and the device strapped to Old Man's wrist went completely dead. Old Man knew his life was over then.
"Get back you…you MUTANT!" She grabbed Old Man – whom she found wasn't really that old, in his early fifties and in pretty good shape – and threw him against the wall. With her icy white eyes, she looked at him and angrily said "Take me to the children!" The silk tie, shirt, and sports coat had already started to burn and he felt the intense heat and electricity coursing through the skin around his neck and chest.
"Okay…you win. I'll take you!" Old Man said in a surrendering voice.
"If you try anything, you'll be dead before you finish the thought!" she yelled as she led him out the door and down the hall toward the staircase. They passed the 2 scientists by the staircase and Old Man grimaced at the site of his dead employee.
"It is clear that you do not care WHO you hurt!" Storm yelled when she saw Old Man looking at the scientist. "You killed your own scientist; just like you killed that CHILD I saw in Vacaville!" she said. He felt the heat increase around his neck when her anger spiked. "You better hope that the other children are all okay!" They walked into the basement and through the large doors of the lab. Storm was surprised to see the lights still on. She quickly realized the lab had its own back-up generator separate from the external units. The lab was very small – filled with tanks similar to Castle and Vacaville but much smaller. There were probably 40 or 50 tanks but most of them were empty. It gave a clear indicator of what Old Man had planned for the future.
"Is THIS what you were looking for?" Old man said, opening his arms to the entire lab.
"How could you?" she asked, looking around at the 12 infants in different stages of growth. The youngest looked to be only a few weeks old and the oldest was probably 2.
"How could I? You ask me that; YOU of all people should know why. You and your group of mutant gangsters! How many are in your little group? I saw 5 of you on the surveillance tape at Castle, and I know there are more – how large has your mutant ARMY grown? What do you have planned for your group? World domination?"
"My friends and I joined together to STOP mad men like you. People like you hate us. You hunt us, you kill us, you make life impossible for us!"
"Impossible for you? After you broke into my lab at Castle, I researched you and your friends. You've been at the center of a LOT of mutant activity. You, your Professor Xavier that ANIMAL Wolverine, the one you call CYCLOPS…and all your other freak friends; that's right – I know more about you than you think! You walk through walls, imitate anyone you want, steal whatever you want and you cause all kinds of mayhem; and SOMEBODY has to stop you before it's too late! If the government won't do it, it's up to people like ME! One way or another, we WILL win this war!"
"This WAR? DO YOU SEE YOUR ENEMIES!" she yelled, pointing to the children. She grabbed him by the collar and pushed his face against the tank of the newborn. "THIS IS WHO YOU WAGED WAR AGAINST – AN INFANT! What threat does this infant pose to you?"
"It's not the INFANT I'm worried about – it's what happens when that freak grows up!" he countered.
"You have the gall to kidnap mutants, experiment on us, then take our children and you think WE are the threat? We become the threat when YOU treat us like this! By the GODDESS!" she yelled. She had enough of his bigotry and stupidity. She spotted the control platform and pushed him toward it. "Are there any more labs?" she asked.
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because your miserable life depends on it." she replied.
"What – sit in a prison cell for the rest of my life...forget it. I'd rather DIE – I'll be a MARTYR!"
"You will not die a martyr, you will die a bigot – a MURDERER! Only then, when you stand before the gates of hell, will you see the error of your ways!"
They reached the control platform and Storm looked around the darkened area. It was very similar to Castle – set up so whoever was in it could monitor everything at a glance. It was larger though – with a connecting room to the side. The doors were open but the room was darkened. Storm could see the silhouette of furniture inside and pushed Old Man toward it. After entering, Storm hit the lights and saw the worst horror she could ever imagine – 2 infant twins on examination tables; both cut open and dissected like a high-school biology experiment. The site was so horrific that she was literally left speechless. Old Man looked back at her stunned silence and saw the icy look of his very brief future. She gasped as her eyes turned white and energy started seeping from her hands and encircling her in light. He was able to dive for cover just as Storm let out an agonizing yell. The energy inside her built up so quickly that she didn't even have time to direct it. A blast of energy flew out of her body. It was so big that it decimated the wall in front of her. By the time the blast dissipated, the wall and the ground behind it had been completely destroyed, leaving a gaping hole toward the surface. Storm immediately fell to her knees and started weeping. In all her years with the X-Men, she had never seen anything so horrific.
Upstairs, Logan saw the huge energy blast rip through the building. It looked like a huge tube of lightening shooting toward the sky. He couldn't see how far it stretched, but it easily reached the outer atmosphere. Luckily there didn't appear to be any planes in the sky; they would have surely been destroyed. As soon as the energy dissipated, a loud crack of thunder rolled across the sky. It was followed by a louder and longer crack. Before he knew it, the weather had gone completely crazy. Winds picked up to near tornado speeds, lightening cracked, rain came out of nowhere and pummeled the area, it looked like Armageddon. "Storm!" he yelled – taking off toward the lab.
Inside the lab, Storm lay on the ground weeping. Old Man saw this as his chance to escape and quickly made a dash for it. Before he could even get out of the room, Storm grabbed him and threw him against the wall. "WHY?!" she yelled. "THEY WERE JUST BABIES!"
"THEY WERE MUTANTS! Eventually they would have used their freak powers against us NORMAL people!"
The energy coming from her hands was so hot that his skin immediately burned with second-degree welts. He yelled in agony, but to no avail. He looked into her demon like eyes for one last time before everything went white. He then yelled one last time before the energy encompassed his whole body and silenced him forever.
"Storm!" Logan yelled, finally finding her in the lab. The light around her was so bright that he couldn't even see Old Man – all he saw was Storm pinning something against the wall. "Storm! Calm down!" he yelled. She didn't hear him. He tried to grab her but the heat coming from her was so hot that he could only get to within 4 or 5 feet of her. "RO!" he yelled. "RO! SNAP OUT OF IT!"
She finally heard him and snapped out of it. She pulled back from the wall but whatever was there had been completely incinerated. Logan grabbed a fire extinguisher and put the object out. Luckily the wall was made of metal or it to would have gone up in flames. Parts of it had already started to melt. It wasn't until he had extinguished the fire that he realized the burning object was a person.
"What the hell?" he said to himself. He'd seen Storm kill before, but in self-defense; not like this. He'd never seen her kill or even try to kill someone purely out of anger. Looking around the room, he saw the 2 infants on the lab tables. "Oh God!" he said, looking back at Storm then again at the children. Storm had again fallen to the ground and was weeping. Logan couldn't tell if she was weeping because of the dead children or because of what she had done to Old Man – or both.
"Ro?" he asked. He walked over and knelt down to hold her. He could still feel the energy emanating from her body when he put his arms around her. He could also hear the thunder outside; pulsing with ever sob of her breath. Every sigh matched perfectly with a lightening strike. Logan saw the flashes of light through the large hole in the lab. It seemed as if heaven itself was crying.
"What have I done?" she proclaimed, grabbing on to Logan's arm.
"Ro…"
"How many people have died tonight by my hand?"
"Ro, nobody would blame you for this…I mean – seeing what you saw would drive anybody crazy; and most of 'em woulda done a lot more killing than you."
"But tonight…what I did…it goes against EVERYTHING I have fought for."
"No Storm, it doesn't. More than anything, it shows EXACTLY what you've been fighting for. You and I both know that there have been casualties on both sides of this. We've all lost people close to us. You also know that if Old Man could have put YOU in one of those tanks, he would have…and those might have been YOUR children laying over there on those tables."
"My children?" she asked – looking to him with a hint of understanding.
"Yeah, YOUR BABIES…your twins; or even Tasha or Jubilee. Hell, if you hadn't come and rescued me, they mighta had my ass strapped to a table. I'm not saying what you did was right Ro, but it's damn sure understandable; and ya sure gotta know I woulda sliced through everybody and their cousin if they had taken you."
"Half of California…" she said faintly, still sobbing but this time with her chin slightly up.
"Eh?"
"You would have sliced through half of California." She said with a slight smile.
"And their cousin!" Logan said with a laugh, trying seriously to lighten her mood.
Logan helped Storm to her feet and escorted her back into the main lab. He figured that as long as she was away from the exam room, she would focus on the 12 infants in the tanks. He knew she had a LOT more reconciling to do, but he also knew they had a lot more work to do with the mutants in Vacaville and the infants in Sacramento. Storm being the commander that she was wouldn't rest until the entire mission had been completed. His plan worked perfectly. As soon as she saw the other infants, she started working on ways to get the children safely out of the tanks. Logan quietly returned to the exam room and covered the twins with sheets.
Storm's comm badge had again been fried; so Beast and Professor Xavier were very surprised to get a collect call from Logan from a payphone just outside the building. After a few minutes and Beast's creative ingenuity, a secure link had been set up between Salem Center, the Vacaville lab, and the Sacramento lab. Logan figured that with all the info Old Man had on the X-Men, he didn't want to risk giving out any more information by directly contacting Salem Center from the lab. Setting up a secured satellite uplink from SC using an untraceable route was much safer.
Within 4 hours, the Blackbird had landed in Vacaville and the other X-Men started helping the mutants. Time was of the essence because the sun was due to come up soon. The prison was secluded but stood next to a small freeway. The freeway was seldom used, but the damage Storm had inflicted on the structure could easily be seen. Jean, Bishop, Cyclops, and Rogue had their hands full. With Jean being present, they were able to bring all the mutants safely out of their tanks and revive them. One by one, each mutant woke to the beautiful faces of Jean and Rogue, then the serious looks of Bishop and Cyclops. The X-Men found that the mutants were either homeless or lived in seclusion – just as Storm had predicted. That was how Old Man was able to kidnap them without anyone noticing. Had it not been for the data found at the Castle lab, Old Man could have kidnapped any number of homeless mutants without anyone ever noticing.
Back in Sacramento, Beast had landed near the helipad with the Blackbird 2 – a smaller jet capable of carrying the 3 X-Men, Tasha, Jubilee, and all the infants. By the time he landed, Storm and Wolverine had already taken all of the infants out of their tanks. Most of them had awoken and were showing strong vital signs – which greatly improved Storm's mood. Beast did a preliminary physical on all of them and said the initial results looked very promising.
"Will you be returning to Salem Center with us?" Beast asked curiously.
"Hah! Try and stop her!" Wolverine responded with a laugh.
"Yes Beast, I will return with you?" she said, holding the youngest infant in her hands. "I have already contacted Jubilee and Tasha and told them to meet us here."
"Very good then, we should be on our way. The sun will be up soon, and I'm afraid the site of this building will draw some unwanted attention. We've gotten all the data we can from this facility, and the scientist we recovered will soon be dropped off with the proper authorities. I'm sure with the surveillance tape from the security system, they will find plenty of evidence to lock him away for a substantial amount of time."
Three days later, Storm called Jean and Cyclops in Vacaville. They remained behind and booked an entire hotel to house the newly freed mutants. With Professor Xavier's generosity, each mutant received a new wardrobe, some cash for a new start, and an invitation back to Salem Center. Very few took him up on his offer, but they all appreciated the assistance. He prepaid their hotel bill for the next 2 months – giving them plenty of time to get back on their feet. He also left his invitation open to all who wanted to take him up on it. Jean reported that everything had gone very well and they would soon be headed back to Salem Center. With that in hand, Storm, Wolverine, and the rest of the X-Men turned their attention to a much sadder note – the funeral service and final resting place of the twins.
Due to Beast's diligence, he was able to locate the parents of the twins – 2 college students from Castle. At first, neither wanted anything to do with the infants. Storm figured that since the children were dead, the parents thought there was nothing else they could do, and that seeing them would only rehash old memories of what had happened. It helped that neither of them had ever seen the children. From the computer records they retrieved from Castle, both of the parents knew that they had been used for reproductive experiments, but that's all they knew. Storm tried to be understanding of the parent's choice not to get involved and told them she would take care of everything. She was very relieved to receive 2 separate phone calls from the young parents a couple days later. It seemed that both had changed their minds and wanted to come to the funeral services.
All of the available X-Men turned out for the private ceremony. They buried the children right there at Salem Center in a secluded but very beautiful spot chosen by Storm. There wasn't a dry eye in the entire group – not even from Wolverine. They had all just been reminded of why they did the things they did and why their mission was so important. Though none of them knew the 2 children, all the X-Men felt as if they had somehow failed to protect them – especially Storm. She took a personal vow to never allow something like that to happen again.