When they got back to the school, they wasted no time in letting Gaia know what they had deduced.
"Where's Oculus?" Gemini then asked.
"He's already on his way to London to meet the UN chiefs, to try and stop this persecution of mutants," said Gaia. "I'm not sure exactly how he plans to convince them; I suppose he must have something in mind. Though from what you've just told me, perhaps that isn't the most serious problem we face."
"Any progress on finding where your friends are being held?" said Pyro.
"Yes, we think we've found where Scott and Logan must be. We don't know about the rest yet."
"Show me."
They were in the underground level beneath the school, and Gaia led them to the meeting room. The rest of the teenagers were there, with a large map of North America spread across the table in front of them. Various smaller regional maps were scattered about the table top as well.
"We're almost certain they're here," she said, pointing to a spot on one of the maps. "It's the highest security military prison in the north eastern US."
"Not too far from the border," added Vertigo. "Not too far from here either."
"Then that's our target," Pyro decided. "Get ready to leave immediately. We'll take the chopper."
The teenagers began hurrying out of the room to prepare themselves. Gemini lingered for a moment, then followed the others. Something occurred to Pyro.
"Hey, where are Crusader and Gladiator?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," said Gaia. "I think they've gone with Marina to track down some part of her past. Something to do with the death of her family. I don't know when they'll get back."
"What, you just let your kids wander off and risk their lives whenever they feel like it, without telling you what they're doing?"
"Ha – do you want to try stopping them? Besides, they don't need my protection any more. There's nothing the two of them can't handle."
Then she sighed, "John, please be careful. Don't kill anybody unless it's completely unavoidable."
"I don't think I'll have the luxury of choice, to be honest."
He headed towards the hangar to begin checking over the helicopter, to ensure it was ready to fly again immediately after their previous journey. When he got there, he saw Vertigo was already doing that, sitting in the cockpit and checking the controls. Atlas was working with the refuelling equipment. Cassandra and Gemini were loading some supplies on board. He allowed himself a brief yet proud smile. He had them well trained by now. Helios was sitting on a crate next to the chopper, the map on his knees, trying to examine the layout of the prison. Seven year old Acceleratus had appeared from somewhere, and she came running over when she saw Pyro entering.
"I'm going with you, I'm going with you!" she said excitedly.
"No, you're not, Accel. You're too little."
"I'm not too little! I wanna help!"
"You can't help. You have to stay here."
"Aw, but – "
Cassandra knelt down beside the child and said softly, "Accel, you can't come with us, honey. We need you to stay here and help guard the school. Can you do that for us?"
"Can't I come with you?"
"No, honey. We need you here."
Accel folded her arms crossly and stood with her back to them. Vertigo had just emerged from the helicopter and yawned, "It's ready to go, Commander in Chief."
"Good."
As bored and disinterested as he always seemed to be, Vertigo glanced over at Helios. The solar mutant had quickly changed into his black X-Man uniform, and the ninja shook his head, "Are you actually going to be wearing that?"
"That's the idea. You can have my spare one, if you promise not to get it dirty."
Vertigo snorted, "I'd rather wear Gemini's skimpy little nightdress."
"Too much information, mate. Besides, wouldn't she mind?"
They looked over as Gaia entered the hangar. Pyro asked her, "You're staying here, I guess?"
"Yes. Someone has to watch over the children," Gaia said.
"Will you be safe on your own? I mean, what if there's another attack?"
"They caught us by surprise last time. This time I can gather enough animals together to be ready to repel any assault."
"You're sure?"
"Of course. Don't worry about me, John. Please keep the teenagers safe. Good luck."
"See you later."
She stood back to watch their takeoff. Accel was helping Cassandra and Atlas to lift the last of the boxes of supplies on board. Gemini was hurrying up into the chopper's interior. Pyro felt a sudden urge to call her back, to order her to stay here where she would be safe. This was the first time since adopting her that he had been in a position of sending his proteges into danger. Every paternal instinct he had was screaming at him to call Gemini back and make her stay here. At the same time, another part of his mind was saying: the safest place she can be is with me. I can't deny her the chance to fight for what she believes in. It isn't fair to protect her while letting the others risk themselves. It will just make her frustrated and angry, and then she'll start to take stupid risks.
The teenagers were already inside the aircraft and ready to go when he entered. Vertigo sat at the controls and with a nod from his leader, he began the takeoff sequence. As the chopper ascended through the opening hangar roof, Gaia stood below and raised her hand in a gesture of farewell. Helios was up front with the maps, and seemed to be acting as navigator.
"I hope they're OK," Gemini said softly to him.
"Who?"
"Cyclops and Wolverine. I mean, I've never really liked them in the past, but I guess they are mutants, the same as us. If we can't, you know, stick together, we'll be a lot worse off. I hope they're OK."
Yeah, if only life was that simple, he thought, if only past deeds could be forgiven and differences overcome so easily. If only life was as simple and one-dimensional as children think.
After the helicopter had vanished into the horizon, and the hangar roof closed above her head, Chloe turned and walked back in the direction of the elevator. There was nothing she could do now but wait. She had no way of knowing what was going to happen next. There were so many different things going on, so many different people involved, so many different parts to play…well, her part was to stay here and keep the children safe. Whatever happened, these kids represented the future of the X-Men and would hopefully be future ambassadors for human-mutant relations. No matter what Chloe and her friends managed to achieve, it would be for nothing if they couldn't bring up the next generation to carry on their work. Perhaps a day would come when there were no more humans, and all children were born with mutations. Evolution would do what Magneto had failed to do. Then the X-Men's role would change from promoting peace with humans, to trying to prevent the world's mutant population splitting into dangerous factions and starting wars against each other. Neil had predicted it would happen. He said it was inevitable, merely part of human nature. Was he right? Chloe generally trusted her husband's judgement, but she often felt dismayed by his perpetually negative outlook.
If only human society was more like that of the animals, she thought. Our trouble is that we're never satisfied with what we are or what we have. After 6000 or more years of so-called civilisation, we still haven't learned the most basic things: to share; and to love each other. Animals can share. Animals don't hoard selfishly. They only take what they need. Animals don't covet each other's possessions or steal from each other. Animals only kill for food or in self defence, and they don't kill their own kind. They aren't obsessed with accumulating material things. They aren't obsessed with having power over every other animal. They only do what they need to, in order to live and care for their young. Animals will never carry out random acts of cruelty for no reason.
Well, almost never. As far as she knew, the only animals who were known to do so were the dolphins and the elephants. Was it coincidence that these were two of the most intelligent species on the planet? Were intelligent animals more likely to be randomly cruel? Did intelligence actually breed cruelty? Was it something to do with a high level of curiosity and imagination? She didn't know. All she knew was that human society could learn a great deal from the so-called lesser members of the animal kingdom. It was the animals whose help she needed to call for now: the ravens and the crows who nested nearby; the hornets who lived deeper in the woods; the spiders who spun their webs in the shades of the overhanging trees; the centipedes and other insects who lived underground; and of course her own adopted creatures that lived in her office. Chloe decided to head there first.
It was just before she reached the elevator that she found her husband walking in the other direction.
"Neil," she said in surprise. "I thought you were on your way to London."
"I am. I just need to pick up a couple of things first."
"OK. I'm going to find as many animals as I can and ask for their help."
"Yes. Good luck."
"You too."
Husband and wife came together and kissed, just for a moment or two, then they parted and went their separate ways. Chloe hit the button to signal the lift. Neil turned the corner in the direction of Cerebro, and the uniform/equipment room. She wondered idly what he was going to take with him, but her mind was soon distracted by thoughts of where she would begin searching for the various creatures she intended to summon to her side.
As they approached their destination, Pyro went into the back of the helicopter to do a quick inventory of the supplies his students had stowed on board. The first crate was full of medical supplies, in case they found their friends injured – well, Scott anyway. Logan wouldn't need any medical help. The second crate contained communicators and a small radar device that could keep track of where each of the communicators was, and thus the location of whoever possessed them. The next two crates contained explosives and demolition equipment that he'd worked hard to keep concealed from the X-Men. They'd probably have 'asked' him to get rid of it, saying it was too dangerous to have around the kids or something. He snorted. This stuff was only dangerous to those who weren't trained to use it (and those being targeted by it, obviously). He had mischievously contemplated offering to teach the kids how to use explosives, but he doubted that would have gone down too well.
The remaining crates were stacked beneath the others, in no logical structure, at the back wall of the chopper's passenger compartment. He lifted the top ones aside to get at the ones underneath. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the small figure crouching between the lower crates.
"Accel!" he cried.
The teenagers glanced round. Her hiding place discovered, the little girl looked up at him.
"What are you doing here! I told you to stay behind!"
"I wanted to help you!" exclaimed the child excitedly. "I heard Gaia saying she can look after the school by herself, so I came to help you!"
"You can't help us, you stupid little girl! Don't you understand that? This isn't a game! This isn't like one of your fun-and-games fights with Vertigo when you can stop as soon as you get tired and he won't try to hurt you! This is real! These people, if they catch you, will kill you! You stupid kid! Do you understand me?"
"I – I – "
The little girl looked ready to cry. Cassandra hurried over, and Accel clutched her.
"Hey, boss, we're there," came Vertigo's lazy voice from the front, breaking the awkward silence.
"OK, I'll be right there," said Pyro, then his anger returned. "Damn it, Accel, now somebody's going to have to stay here and keep an eye on you! Why can't you just do what you're told!"
"I'll stay with her," said Cassandra. "I'll use the radar device to keep track of all of you, and act as a communications relay. You'll be less one person, but I'm not really much use in a fight anyway. I can still give you any forewarnings that I get."
"Fine. All right, the rest of you, let's get moving."
They had landed as close to the military prison as they could without being detected. There was plenty of cover to make use of on their way to the building, but once they got there they'd have to deal with guards and unknown levels of electronic security. They had no idea whereabouts in the building Scott and Logan were being held, if indeed they were being held here. This would have to be a very carefully executed operation. If they went in too quickly, they'd probably be captured or killed before getting near their friends. If they took too long, the humans would call in armoured reinforcements and they would be fighting an uneven contest. This was not going to be easy.
"It's times like these I really miss Recyclo," Pyro mused.
"Ugh, I don't," Cassandra said.
"Me either," Gemini agreed.
"I don't mean him personally," he said. "I mean somebody with his electronics expertise. But, I guess we'll just have to manage without him. Atlas, Vertigo, get those crates unloaded. Helios, do we have any schematics of this place?"
"Exterior only," the solar mutant said. "Interior plans of the prison would be top security. Shapeshifter could probably have downloaded them from somewhere, but, well, he ain't around right now."
Gemini had opened up the communications crate and she was distributing the comm. units amongst them. Cassandra unpacked the small tracking unit and began setting it up to receive signals from the communicators. She counted five dots on the scope and said, "Right, I have you all being detected by the machine via your comms. Is there some way I can assign an identifier to each dot?"
"Yeah, I'll show you," said Helios, moving over close to her.
Acceleratus had retreated into the corner and huddled there, glancing unhappily at Pyro. When he returned her gaze, she looked away quickly. He felt a little guilty for yelling at the seven year old, but she had to realise just how dangerous this mission was, and how stupidly she had acted. He blamed the X-Men, for bringing these children up in a sheltered environment where the kids thought everything was just a game and nobody would try to hurt them. Obviously he had fully intended to bring Accel on a mission some day, but not until she was at least ten, and even then she would only be allowed to watch.
"This looks like our best point of entry, wouldn't you say?" Helios asked him, poring over the map again. "After we get past the fences we'll be inside the compound. We can approach unseen from this direction – I don't expect there'd be too many guards there, do you? – then we can gain entry from here. If we get in trouble, all we have to do is guard our retreat here – then make a run for the chopper."
Pyro glanced at it. The kid seemed to know what he was talking about, and there appeared to be no immediately apparent and superior route.
"Yup, let's do it," he agreed.
Then he glanced over to see Gemini putting together some small explosive devices from the supply crates. Accel was watching her wide-eyed.
"Honey, you will be careful, won't you?" he said a little anxiously.
Gemini gave him a strange look, as if to say: of course I'm being careful; I'm not exactly going to fool around with this stuff, am I?
"Can I help you do that?" Accel asked her curiously.
"What? No, of course you can't, Accel. You don't know how to use this stuff."
"It doesn't look that hard. All you're doing is just putting some wires in some modelling clay."
Gemini sighed, "This isn't modelling clay, Accel, it's plastic explosive. It's really, really dangerous and you must never, ever touch it, OK? Look, just – will you just go and talk to Cassie, all right?"
"Ready to go, boss. Looks clear," said Vertigo, who had been outside surveying the terrain ahead.
Pyro nodded, "Right. Let's go. Cassandra, let us know if you see anybody headed for the prison, even if you don't think we're likely to bump into them."
"Sure thing, chief."
"Accel, you stay here and be good, OK? Don't touch anything and don't leave the helicopter. If you do, you'll be in serious trouble. Got that?"
"Yes!" the child snapped resentfully, stamping her foot to show her anger.
Cassandra spoke softly to her, "You can help me with the radar box, honey. Come and look. These dots represent each of our friends. See? The dots are moving to show where our friends are…"
The other five lost track of her voice as they moved away from the helicopter.
"All right, we can't move in a group, we'll be too conspicuous," said Pyro. "We'll split up into pairs. I'll go on my own."
Helios and Vertigo instantly gravitated together. Both quick-witted and sharp-tongued, they had become fast friends almost immediately after the alliance was formed. If there was a practical joke being played in the school, they were guaranteed to be mixed up in it somewhere, as instigators, advisors, suppliers, or, most likely, perpetrators. That pairing left Gemini and Atlas together, but both of them were happy enough with that. Slowly, cautiously, the five of them began to move towards the prison building, keeping under cover as much as they could. There was no sign of any patrols or surveillance equipment this far out, but once they reached the first perimeter fence, things would start to get a lot more difficult.
Helios and Vertigo paused in the shelter of a small concrete building, and waited for the others to catch up with them. Glancing overhead, Vertigo noticed a set of wires attached somewhere on the top of this building, stretching over the two chain-link fences and connecting to something else inside the prison building itself. An idea began to brew in his head. Yes, the wires were fully taut. He nudged Helios, "Hey, look up there. I bet you I can walk across that wire straight into the prison."
"Bet you can't."
"Yeah? Ten bucks?"
"You're on, mate."
Something in his friend's voice made Vertigo instantly suspicious. Helios seemed too confident. Then Helios stepped aside to reveal a sign on the side of the building. WARNING, it read, FENCES AND OVERHEAD WIRES ARE PERMANENTLY ELECTRIFIED. CONTACT IS DEADLY.
Helios grinned, "Ten of your American dollars, my good man."
"Cheat."
"Braggart."
"Limey."
"Yankee."
"Monarchist."
"Warmonger."
"Imperialist."
"Oil-drinker."
"Glorified light-bulb."
"Sentient rubber band."
Gemini snapped from beside them, "Oh, grow up! Failing that, at least shut up!"
The two of them exchanged glances and grinned.
"Dad, they're not taking this seriously!" the girl complained. "Make them shut up!"
"Well, a bit of humour does relieve the tension," said Pyro. "Believe it or not, I was exactly like that once."
"I can believe that," said Helios.
"What is it about men?" Gemini wondered. "The more you like each other, the more you insult each other."
"Never mind," said her father. "We have a job to do."
They had reached the first of the fences, at least twelve feet high and, as they now knew, pulsing with electrical current. Any contact with it would prove instantly lethal.
"Atlas? Can you make a tunnel underneath?"
The earth mutant knelt down and put his hands on the ground, trying to get a feel for the density and constitution of the land beneath their feet.
"No good," he said. "There are metal plates beneath the surface. They must have put them in place to prevent tunnelling."
"Yeah. Well, we'll have to find another way."
"What if we turn off the power for the electric fence?" Gemini suggested.
"The controls will be inside the prison. Helios? Can you melt a hole in the fence?"
Dominic glanced up at the sky. The sun was behind cloud. He shook his head. Gemini sighed. Vertigo slouched. An idea sparked inside Pyro's brain. He looked at the ground, then at Atlas, then at the fence.
"Right, I've got it. Everybody stand back."
Scott Summers slowly and painfully regained consciousness. His memories floated about in pieces, and he struggled to remember what had happened. Where was he? Oh yeah. He'd been captured. His head pounding, he stirred and tried to get his bearings.
"Scott, don't open your eyes!"
A woman's voice. His confused brain misfired for a moment, "Jean?"
Then he thought more clearly, "Rogue? Is that you?"
"Don't open your eyes! You haven't got your visor on and I'm stuck right in front of you and I can't move!"
He began to think logically. He couldn't move his arms or legs, and he felt like he was tied down. Keeping his eyes closed, it wasn't easy to get any idea of his situation. Was he upright or horizontal? His co-ordination was shot.
"Where are we?"
"I don't know."
"Rogue, I can't see anything. Describe it to me."
"OK, I'm guessing it's a cell of some kind. Square-shaped room, metal walls and floor. There's no furniture except these two things we're tied to. I'm right in front of you. If you open your eyes you'll kill me."
"Right, I get the picture. What happened to you and Bobby? Were you captured?"
"Yeah! It was an ambush! It was strange; it was like they knew we were going to be there in advance. As if they were waiting for us."
"Yes. The same thing happened to us."
"Scott, I don't get it! Who are these people? How do they know so much about us? Look at the way they've got us tied up here!"
"I can't see anything."
"Right, sorry. I mean, they've got you stuck so you'll kill me the moment you open your eyes! My hands are tied in such a way that if I move them at all, I'll be touching your face and I'll drain you! I can't get out of my bonds. Damn, they thought of everything."
"What about the others?"
"I dunno. I woke up some time ago and I've not seen anyone else."
"I guess Neil was right. Whatever is going on runs much deeper than the terrorist attacks. Do you think the whole point was to lead us into a trap?"
He was talking to himself more than anything else, and he wasn't listening to any response she might have made.
"Scott, what are we gonna do? We have to get out of here!"
"OK. Rogue, don't panic. Now, remember I can't see anything. Am I still wearing my uniform?"
"Yeah. We both are."
"Right. In my shoulder compartment there's a spare visor, unless it's been taken. I can't move my arms. Do you think you can get at it?"
"I can try – but if I touch you by accident then I might kill you. Even if my power doesn't kill you right away, the shock will make you open your eyes, and you'll kill me."
"Let's try to avoid that eventuality. Just be careful. Keep your hand steady. I know you're nervous, but don't panic."
"OK…here goes…"
Fliss knew she dared not move a muscle. There really had been a cruel ingenuity in the mind that had conceived her prison cell. She had woken to find herself tied to two giant electrodes that hung from the ceiling. Through them flowed a gigantic electric current, to which her power made her immune. The same was not true of the unconscious figure of Kurt, who hung limply at the other side of the small room. He too was tied to a pair of hanging electrodes, which were currently redundant, but Fliss knew that if she did anything to disturb the electrical current that flowed harmlessly through her, then it might well jump to the second circuit and electrocute Nightcrawler. In short, she couldn't move. Working her hands free of the ropes that held them would have been easy enough, but if she let go of the electrodes then Kurt was dead.
Besides the electrodes, there was nothing else in the room. There had to be some way to get out of here. Their only hope seemed to be for Kurt to teleport himself free of the second pair of electrodes. Once he had done that, he was in no danger of electrocution, and Fliss could free herself. Then the two of them could try to work out some way of getting out of this damn place. Without any way to open the door from inside, of course, that was going to be difficult, and Kurt couldn't teleport without knowing where he was going, but there had to be some escape. The only problem with that plan was: Kurt wasn't showing any signs of waking. Perhaps he had been sedated. Perhaps that was the whole point, so he couldn't teleport anywhere. Fliss sighed. There was nothing she could do but wait; wait for him to wake, or for someone else to find them.
Logan had lost count of the number of times he had sworn and cursed whoever was responsible for his current predicament. With a set of claws that could cut through – well, anything – he had always assumed it was just about impossible to imprison him anywhere. There was no binding or wall that he could not force his way through. Of course, he had never considered the possibility that someone might wire up a huge magnet and attach him to it. That was how he had found himself when he had come to not long ago, spread-eagled on the surface of a giant magnetic surface. His adamantium skeleton was irresistibly attracted to the metal, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. Twisting his head around to get a better view of the room, he had seen nothing – no power sources or suchlike – that he might destroy to turn off the magnet. Fuck, he hated this. The frustration, the helplessness, the inactivity – the fact that it was his own metallic 'bones' that were holding him prisoner. So often they had saved his life and those of his friends during battle. This was an irony he simply couldn't stomach. He was a simmering, spitting ball of rage, ready to leap on and dismember whoever had done this to him. At least he knew who had to be responsible. It had to be Magneto. Nobody but that bastard would have come up with the idea of using a magnet to imprison Logan.
Wearing an amused expression, the ageless man known as One folded his arms as he watched the screen in front of him, showing the five figures stealthily approaching the prison building. He had to admit, their method of getting over the fences had been fast and impressive. Even though he knew about the earth mutant, he hadn't anticipated the boy pulling up enough rocks and dirt and piling it up until they had a ramp to climb safely over the fence. Clearly, this enemy was ingenious, and that was good. A challenge was always welcome. He turned to one of his men, "They're coming. Get ready. Block any transmissions they try to make."
Acceleratus had been so intrigued by the radar box that she hadn't bothered Cassandra with any questions or requests to play games to pass the time. Children her age normally got bored easily, and Cassandra was thankful to have found something to occupy the little girl so successfully. She smiled as she glanced at the little figure who knelt in front of the machine, brow furrowed in concentration, one of the maps open beside her, trying to work out how to plot the radar data on to the map to work out where their friends were. Cassandra had then begun unpacking and sorting out some of the medical supplies, expecting that they might need them when the X-Men were pulled out of the building.
Suddenly, completely without warning, she had a fore-flash. Into her mind burst an image, and she stumbled and fell on to her hands and knees with the shock of it. Gasping for breath, she felt Accel's hand on her shoulders, the child asking, "Cassie, are you all right?"
Cassandra ignored her and tried to piece together the image in her mind. Her friends…they were in danger…they were about to be attacked! Gently pushing the little girl aside, she hurried to the radar box, picking up the communicator mike.
"Pyro!" she cried into the mike. "It's a trap! You're going to be attacked! Get out of there!"
She waited for a response, but there was none.
"Pyro? Anybody?"
"Hey look, the dots are gone."
Accel was pointing to the screen of the radar box, where the dots representing their friends had vanished.
"Damn it, our signals are being blocked!" said Cassandra. "We can't tell them they're in danger!"
"What are we going to do, Cassie?"
"I have to go and warn them! I might still be able to get to them in time! If they get captured, we might never get them back!"
"Let's go!" the child said excitedly.
"No, you're staying here. Accel, don't argue with me! Please!"
Perhaps the little girl sensed just how desperate Cassandra really was, but for whatever reason she complied, "OK, Cassie."
Cassandra kissed her lightly on the forehead, then threw open the door and jumped down on to the ground outside, running towards the prison compound. She had to find her friends! She had to warn them!
"Here comes another one, sir."
"Ah yes, that will be the foreseer. Neutralise her."
Fear coursing through her veins, Cassandra did not react in time when she received another fore-flash. From hidden positions, two men appeared, holding rifles and aiming them directly at her head. Before she could move, speak or even think, a tranquilliser dart shot into her neck. Her world swam for a moment or two, then she collapsed.
"We got her, sir."
"Excellent."
"The others are being subdued, sir. But I think they managed to get a signal out, despite our attempts to jam them."
"No matter. Any other possible reinforcements would have accompanied the foreseer."
"Right, sir."
"Ha. So much for the second wave. What on Earth did Charles Xavier teach these people?"
Acceleratus jerked up in surprise as the radar box began talking. She looked over to see the dots had reappeared on the screen, and Pyro's voice was coming out of the speaker. She ran over at once.
"Cassandra? Cassandra!" he was yelling. "We're in trouble! I think we've run into a trap! Get out of there!"
Accel had seen Cassie speaking into the microphone, so she knew how to use it. Picking it up, the child said, "Pyro?"
"Accel? Where's Cassandra?"
"She's gone to warn you! She said you were in danger!"
"Accel, get out of there! The helicopter's emergency auto-pilot is programmed to return to the school! I've showed you how to activate it! Accel, get out of there!"
"No, I'm coming to help you!"
"ACCEL, NO! DO NOT – "
But then the signal went dead. There was no doubt in the seven year old's mind as to what she was going to do. She had to help Cassie and the others. That was why she had come here. Pyro didn't think she could do it, but she was going to prove him wrong. She wasn't afraid. If anyone tried to hurt her she could just run away and they wouldn't be able to catch her. She had to find Cassie and make sure she was all right. Accel made sure her shoes were tied, then she stood, and hurried to the door. Climbing out of the chopper on to the ground outside, she began running in the direction she had seen Cassandra going.