The passage was climbing again, and this time Atlas really could feel an air draught. The others behind him were quiet now, probably having gotten used to the enclosed surroundings. Atlas was worrying about whether Magneto knew they were here. The psychic attack on Cassandra told them that Magneto was obviously aware of their approach, but whether or not he could pinpoint their exact location…was he aware of the existence of this old vent shaft? Had it been abandoned from use before he had moved his base of operations into the ocean labs? It was of course still only an assumption that he was based here, but everything seemed to point that way. The Navy admiral who was part of the conspiracy was presumably the one in overall command of the ocean lab facility, and he must have given it over to Magneto.
Atlas was worried that there might be a reception committee waiting for them at the other end of the tunnel. He had no fear of humans, but if Magneto himself was there…would he actually try to kill them? Aqua had said he'd tried to kill her, but then she was one of the X-Men. Atlas and his friends were Brothers (and Sisters). Surely Magneto wouldn't try to kill them. But then, he must have been the one ultimately responsible for the attack on the school. The attackers had certainly intended to kill. Had Magneto told them to do that? Had they misinterpreted or disobeyed his orders?
Vertigo was having similar thoughts: What happens if we climb out of this tunnel and Magneto's standing right there, ready for us? Do we attack him? I guess the most sensible thing is to wait and see what he does first. But, of course, if we do that it could already be too late. If he really does want to kill us…but why? It doesn't make any sense!
Gemini couldn't understand it either. Her claustrophobia had finally begun to subside as she grew more accustomed to the rock around her. Her brain had finally managed to convince her that she was in no danger. If anything were about to happen, like the tunnel collapsing, then Cassie would foresee it, and Atlas would use his power to protect her. Her very worst fear of being forever entombed was not going to happen. She was keeping her mind off her fear by puzzling over Magneto: How can he still be alive? Dad and Mystique both told me he was dead! And they were both there, so they ought to know. Unless they lied…but Dad wouldn't lie to me, and he's as confused about this as we all are. Did Mystique lie? She sought out me and Dad specifically to tell us Magneto was dead. Why would she lie about that? Why would she bother telling us if it wasn't true? Was she trying to mislead us, to make us look someplace else? Why would she do that to us? I don't believe she would do that to me. When I was on the island, when I first arrived there and I was really scared and I couldn't even walk or talk, she was always kind to me. She gave me clothes, and books and toys, stuff she must have gotten specially for me, since it would hardly have just been lying around.
Why did any of them care for me if it was all a lie? Magneto told Dad where to find me, I know that now. Mystique cared for me and, well, I guess she must have loved me to go to the trouble she did for me. Why would they do any of that if they didn't really believe in protecting mutants? What they're doing now, this conspiracy, it totally goes against everything they ever taught me! I don't get it! The Magneto and Mystique I knew back then can't be the same people we're dealing with now. They must have changed. Something must have changed them. I had that crazy idea earlier…yeah, what if Xavier screwed with their minds and changed them? From what Dad told me, that sounds like the kind of thing he'd do. That must be what it is. This is all Xavier's fault! He knew he was dying but he couldn't take losing, so he cheated! He messed up their minds and made them do stuff they never would have done of their own free will!
She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't notice Helios had stopped in front of her, and almost ploughed into the back of him.
"What's happening?" she said.
"We've reached the end," said Atlas. "There's another cover here, blocking our way. On the other side is a room, looks like it used to hold the old ventilation system. It's empty now, but it should give us access to the rest of the facility."
"Helios, you're up," Vertigo said.
His hand still emitting stored solar energy, Helios crawled to the front and crouched beside the other two guys. Gemini took the opportunity to move forward so she could watch. She always liked to watch the others using their powers. It reminded her that she was among mutants, among friends, who had gifts that set them above ordinary humans. We're superior beings, a further stage of evolution. Humans can't accept it, they think they're the superior species. They think we're just an aberration, one of evolution's mistakes. Humans are, like, so stupid, why can't they see the truth?
Then again…if it were the other way around…would I see it? Would I accept it?
Helios' laser was cutting into the cover, and they waited for him to finish. With the exception of Atlas, all of them were relieved at the prospect of escaping from the tunnel. Gemini was claustrophobic even in less tight environments; Helios had been horribly cramped; Aqua and Cassandra had just escaped a near-death experience. It would take quite a lot of incentive for any of them to crawl through a tunnel like that again.
As the laser completed its circle, and Vertigo kicked the cover loose, their next problem became evident. The opening was still several feet off the floor in the room below. Glancing down, the boys could see that the floor was concrete, and definitely too far down to jump. The only thing in the room was an old, rusting piece of machinery. They guessed it had been part of the old ventilation system, back when this shaft was in use.
"Can we jump on to that?" asked Gemini.
Cassie shook her head, "It's too far away."
"How are we gonna do this?" Helios demanded.
Atlas frowned, "I might be able to dislodge some rocks and drop them down there, to lessen the distance we have to drop, but it'd be risky…"
"Stand aside," Vertigo told them. "You've all had your moment; this is mine."
Gripping the edges of the opening tightly, he edged out until he was crouched, catlike, on the very rim of the gap.
"Wait a minute, what are you doing?" Gemini said. "You're going to jump? You'll kill yourself!"
He glanced at her, "I'm surprised you care. I thought you hated me."
"I do hate you, but that doesn't mean I want to see you dead. What are you trying to do?"
"Just watch."
At that instant he sprang, his body uncoiling like a spring and twisting around in mid-air. For a moment it looked as if he was about to fall to his death, and Gemini was already clutching Atlas in horror, but at the last minute Vertigo grabbed the edge of the machine, and hung there as he regained his bearings. It was an incredible jump, something that even the best human gymnast in the world couldn't have equalled. Despite her immense dislike of the young man, Gemini found herself applauding and sagging with relief that he had made it. Of course, their problems weren't over yet. It would be easy enough to climb down the machine to the floor…but somehow the others had to get over there as well.
Then they saw what Vertigo must have spotted. There was a maintenance ladder attached to the side of the machine. It too was old and rusty, and he was in the process of tearing it free from its holdings. The others watched until he had it loose. From there he carried it across the floor until he was standing underneath the opening to the vent shaft. The others looked down at him.
"It's not long enough," Gemini pointed out, as if the others were too stupid to notice. "It's not going to reach up here."
"Relax," said Atlas.
He still had one or two short ropes coiled around his waist, that they hadn't needed during their ascension of the cliff face. Using the rope and ladder, the rest of them were able to climb down and join Vertigo. The six of them sat at the base of the wall for a few minutes to get their breath back and prepare for the next stage of the intrusion.
Helios reached into a pocket of his uniform, and pulled out the plans of the facility. Aqua had used Shapeshifter's computer to hack into US Navy files and download them. They couldn't be sure how up-to-date the schematics were. Magneto might well have installed some new features. They would have to be ready for anything.
"OK," Vertigo was saying. "The computer complex is quite close by, right here. Aqua, that's your job."
"I'll go with her," said Helios, it's my job to protect her.
Good, Vertigo thought cynically, put both of the X-Men together. If Magneto only wants to kill X-Men, he'll leave the rest of us alone.
"Right," he said. "The main docks are down this way, and likely to be under the heaviest guard. Atlas, what say you and me go down that way and try to find this submarine they're supposed to building? It seems pretty crucial to Magneto's plans. We have to find out what he wants to use it for, as well as what sort of weapon capabilities it has, that kind of thing."
"Sounds good."
"Gemini, Cassie, you two will head for their main research labs and look for clues, anything that tells you more about his plans. I don't expect that area will be as heavily protected, but keep your eyes open. If you find he's holding the X-Men there…well, I hate to say it, but we could sure use their help right now. Get them out if you can."
"If he hasn't already started using his mind control on them," Cassandra said. "What if he tries to attack the rest of you with his psychic powers? Only Gemini can defend herself from them."
"I guess there isn't anything we can do about that. We'll just have to try and be lucky. OK, everybody ready? Let's go."
Gemini smiled at the group, "Well, good luck, all of you. Come on, Cassie."
They split up into pairs, and headed off in three different directions. This section of the base appeared to be have been abandoned for some time, presumably since they had moved the ventilation system to wherever it was now. As far as the six young mutants knew, they had managed to infiltrate the facility without the knowledge of anybody, most importantly Magneto. They hoped it would stay that way. Perhaps he did not see them as that big a threat. Perhaps he was keeping most of his concentration on the adults who were left: Wolverine, Pyro, Gaia and Oculus, wherever he was. Perhaps he was underestimating them. Perhaps he did not think children, or teenagers, were capable of doing anything serious against him. Whatever, they just had to hurry and do whatever they could.
The two youngest X-Men, Aqua and Helios, were running through the darkened corridors towards their destination. They knew they'd come to an occupied part of the complex before long. At that point speed would have to give way to stealth. The most important thing was that nobody detect them before they had done what they came here to do: get any information they could about what was going on. Helios knew he was no good with computers. His task would be to keep watch and forestall any threats while Aqua did the fact-finding on the computers. He knew she wasn't as good as Shapeshifter, but hopefully she would be good enough.
Aqua's passion was growing. She was getting closer and closer to the heart of this whole business, closer to finding out exactly what it was that her family had died for. Her brother – poor, honest Jason who had done nothing to deserve his death – had found evidence of Admiral McKenzie's part in this conspiracy. That had spelt out a death sentence for Aqua's entire family, herself included. That she had eluded death twice – three times – at Magneto's hands, made her even more determined to get to the heart of this and bring the metal-mastering bastard down. Initially she'd blamed McKenzie, and he was certainly far from blameless, but ultimately it was Magneto who was pulling the strings, who would have given the order to terminate her loved ones. Aqua was going to find out what it was he loved, whatever it was he was doing all this to achieve, and then take it away from him. She was going to destroy his plans and dreams and everything he was working towards. She would take his everything, as he had taken hers.
They reached the computer labs without running into anybody, which Helios took as a good sign. Presumably Magneto had no idea they were here. The computer room required a pass-code to be entered into a number pad beside the door. It was the work of a few moments for Helios to burn through the electronic lock with the last of the solar energy stored in his hand. Then the light beam flickered and died.
"You're – you're out?" she asked.
He nodded, "I used up all my solar power acting as a torch back there in the tunnel. I'm going to have find another light source and recharge."
"Then I'll g – get to work on the c – computers."
They entered the lab, and she headed straight for one of the machines. Intrigued, Helios watched her progress. Initially she was greeted with a login screen, requiring a username and password, but it took mere minutes for her to work out a combination which allowed access. Helios forced himself to concentrate on standing guard at the door, watching out to see if anyone should approach. Aqua typed fast, and the sound of her fingers on the keyboard was the only thing that broke through the silence.
"Getting anywhere?" he asked eventually.
She shook her head, "N – no. The files are all protected by encryption. Even though I've – I've logged in as a user, I still have to d – decrypt anything to look at it. These guys are taking no chances."
He walked over to look over her shoulder, at a computer screen full of icons and windows and text that meant nothing to him. Helios could beat just about anyone at multi-player computer gaming, but when it came to 'real computing', he was all at sea.
"You can break the decryption, yeah?" he said.
"Well…no. This is real expert stuff, done by a – a master security pro. It – it looks like the same person who e –encrypted the files I stole from McKenzie's computer as well."
"How long will it take you to get in?"
"You don't seem to be h – hearing me. Try never. I'm – I'm way out of my depth."
"OK…so what do we do?"
She shrugged, "Find Shapeshifter, I suppose."
The sound of the door opening startled both of them. Glancing up in shock, they stared back into the eyes of the equally startled man in the doorway. Chubby, dark-haired and carrying a pizza box and six-pack of beer, he got as far as saying, "Who are – " before Aqua sprang across the room, tackling him to the floor and holding him there, her knee in his throat, constricting his windpipe, preventing him from talking. He could breathe, but that was all. She was a fourteen year old girl and thus should not have proved a match for a grown man in terms of strength, but his struggles to move her yielded nothing.
"Do you know the decryption key for the files on these machines?" she snapped, speaking quickly and without her stammer.
He nodded frantically, desperate to get her off his throat so he could breathe easily.
"Tell me the key," she said. "Yell for help and I'll snap your neck."
Releasing the pressure on his throat, she waited for a response. He coughed and choked for a moment, getting his voice back, then words spilled out, "Take the name 'John von Neumann', convert it into ASCII, then into binary. That's the decryption key. Who the hell are you?"
"If you keep quiet, I'm the woman who's about to let you live," she turned to Helios. "Hold him while I try the key."
"Gotcha," said the solar mutant. "Say, who's John von Neumann?"
"He invented computers."
As she stood and stepped away from the men, Helios moved over to grab him and keep him still and silent. Aqua finally got a good look at his face, and she recognised him right away.
"He's from the photograph," she said. "One of Mag – Magneto's friends."
"One of the two we couldn't identify?" Helios answered, taking a closer look at the guy. "You're right. All right, mate. Who are you? Why are you working for Magneto? What he's trying to do?"
"My name's William Hoogstrate," the man said quickly – fear was still making him act co-operative. "I don't know anyone called Magneto, what's one of those?"
"I think you know who I'm talking about," Helios snapped. "Your boss, whatever you call him. The big cheese, the head honcho, the Number One…"
At this last, the man stiffened slightly, but said nothing. Helios ignored him. If Aqua couldn't find anything on computers, they could try forcing more information out of the guy.
"How's it going?" he asked of the girl.
"I'm in," she told him.
"Find anything?"
"I'm not sure. It looks as if they're working on some project. It's called Project Eternity, but it doesn't say why. It's a combination of the efforts of all twelve of them, including Magneto. I can't find any specific details, but I'll keep looking…"
"Mar – um – Aqua?"
"Yeah?"
"You're not stammering any more. In fact…you sound totally different."
"Of course I do. I'm about to find out why Magneto ordered my family killed. Of course I feel different. I'm not a helpless victim any more."
She returned to typing, and Dominic looked back at the struggling man he still held pinned to the floor, "OK, so what's your role? What part are you playing in this Project Eternity?"
William Hoogstrate licked his lips nervously, "I, uh, I don't know what you're talking about. I just work here, at the ocean labs. I'm a computer technician."
Could that be true? Maybe he really didn't know anything about Magneto or this project. Maybe he really was just a random guy who worked here. Wait a minute. No…of course not. He was in the photograph. He was one of the twelve.
"That's lie number one," said Helios. "Let's try not to make it any more than that. Try again."
The computer expert sighed, "All right, so Mr Lehnsherr hired me to do some computer work for him. Security, mostly. I keep any sensitive data from being stumbled upon by hackers or police or the feds. Mr Lehnsherr demands absolute secrecy for this whole project."
"What's he paying you? What's he promised you?"
"Nothing! He pays me ordinary US dollars. Really, I don't know what you're talking about."
"What about the others? Al Sayed and Worcester and Smith and the other billionaires? What's he offering them?"
"I don't know who you're talking about…I've never heard of them…"
"That's lie number two. How could you not have heard of them? They're world famous names. And we have a photograph with you and them in it."
Hoogstrate was getting frustrated, "All right, wise ass, so I know them! That doesn't mean I know what they're being paid. I don't talk to them and they don't talk to me!"
"Come on! Try harder."
"No! I really don't know, and you're hurting me."
Helios gave up, "Aqua?"
"Hold on a second. OK. I think I'm starting to see exactly why Magneto has recruited each of these people. There are twelve of them and they're all experts in some particular field. He's using them to help him manufacture this constantium stuff. It's the key to everything. Each of the twelve has some connection to it. I'll just read them out in the order they're listed in the computer's files:
"First is Magneto himself, obviously, and we know what he's capable of…
"Second, Robert Worcester is a media tycoon. He has enough influence to be able to spread propaganda to the world, to prevent anyone from finding out what's going on here…
"Third, Ahmed Al Sayed is a Saudi oil billionaire, and he provides the group with all the funding they need…
"Fourth, Gregory Kelvin owns almost all the major shipbuilding companies in America, and handles contracts from the Navy and the Marines. He's the one who's constructing this submarine Magneto wants…
"Fifth is a guy called John Smith, another billionaire who provides all of the raw materials needed for the submarine and for the constantium project…
"Sixth, somebody we haven't heard of before. His name is Ciaran Green, and according to this he practically invented the field of picoelectronics."
Helios frowned, and interrupted her, "What's picoelectronics?"
"On the scale of miniaturisation, one level smaller than nanoelectronics."
"Oh."
"It's still not clear exactly what he's up to. Something to do with 'bioelectronic implant devices'…I think I'll find out more about that in a minute…
"Anyway, seventh is one of the women: Ellen Marshall. She's a senior White House advisor, and she's made sure that the President and the Senate also remain ignorant of what's going on…
"Eighth is – is Admiral McKenzie from the US Navy. He gave Magneto access to the labs here and stole Navy equipment and research secrets to help Magneto's projects."
Helios said, "That's what your brother uncovered, yeah? That's why Magneto went after your family?"
"I – uh – yeah. As for the rest…number nine is – or was – a member of Special Forces. His name's Philippe Devant. I think he must be the one who led the attack on the school. He survived, right?"
"Yeah."
"Tenth is Karen Auberschwift, who happens to be probably the best lawyer in all of the United States. She works as defence counsel for the others when required, and she's ready to defend their project from legal attack if anyone ever finds out about it. Clearly they're planning for the worst…"
"Eleventh is this guy right here: William Hoogstrate. He's South African. A few years ago he was one of the most dangerous and talented computer hackers in the world. He even appeared in the FBI's ten most wanted list at one point. Then Magneto recruited him. He provides all the computer security they need to keep their operations a secret…"
"Twelfth, Elena Cartëasis…as far as we know she's Gemini's mom. She's a biometallurgist who helped Magneto in his initial discovery of constantium. I think she's been working with him longer than any of the others. As I said, this constantium stuff seems to be central to everything that they're doing."
"But why?" said Helios. "What's so special about it? OK, so it's stronger than adamantium which is supposedly indestructible, but why does that mean so much to all these people?"
"I don't know yet. Ask him."
Helios tightened his grip on Hoogstrate, "Why is constantium so important?"
The computer security man sniffed, "I'm not telling you anything else. No, even if you threaten me. Mr Lehnsherr swore me to secrecy, and he scares me a lot more than you do."
"Fine," said Aqua. "Everything you know will be on the computer anyway. It'll just take me longer to find it."
"So what are you going to do with me?"
She looked at him, "You haven't screamed for help, so we'll let you live. Here, Helios, I found this in the cupboard over there."
Aqua threw over a roll of duct tape. Helios proceeded to bind the man hand and foot, and put another length over his mouth. As Shapeshifter had taught him, he searched for the pressure points in the man's neck and rendered him unconscious.
"Anything more about constantium?"
Aqua frowned, "Just a little snippet here…looks as if I was right: it does block telepathy. When it's in its pure form, at least."
"Maybe that's got something to do with his plan for it…"
"Um – Helios?" said Aqua, her stammer and uncertainty returning.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think that Annie and – uh, I mean Crusader and Gladiator are – are here somewhere? I have to find them. I – I can't relax until I know they're s – safe."
"I suppose they must be here, if this is Magneto's secret headquarters."
"I – I'm struggling to concentrate on what I'm doing here, b – because I can't stop worrying about them. Do you think we could try and find them?"
"That's what Gemini and Cassie are doing, remember? They're looking for our friends. We have a job to do here. If we don't do it, the whole mission could fail."
"Yes – yes, I suppose you're right. I – I just can't stop thinking about what M – Mag – Magneto might be doing to them…he can't control their minds because they're too powerful for that. He might decide to – to just kill them…"
"Come on, we have to focus! The best way to help them is to do our job here. Keep looking on the computer."
Unhappily she turned back to the machine in front of her. Helios dragged the unconscious Hoogstrate across the room so he would not be seen from the doorway. So this one of the twelve, he thought, I hope the other eleven are as easy to knock out as this one. Somehow I don't think they will be. We still have the advantage of surprise, but one mistake and that will be lost. The other ten aren't really so important. It's Magneto we have to get to and subdue. He's the driving force behind this. The others are…well, I'm not really supposed to say this…but they're only human.
"I don't believe this," Aqua's startled voice cut into his thoughts.
"What?"
"The Apocalypse Project."
"The Apocalypse Project?" he walked over to her, "You mean the genetic engineering that produced the Horsemen? Van Gaarde created them as a sort of special security force, didn't he?"
"R – right, but until now we didn't know who was – who was ultimately responsible for the Apocalypse Project, and for releasing V – Van Gaarde from prison to – to work on it."
"I thought it was someone in your government."
"Not a – according to this. The Apocalypse Project was Mag – Magneto's idea. He and his eleven friends conspired to – to get Van Gaarde out of maximum security prison, so he could – so he could create the Horsemen."
"But what would Magneto want the Horsemen for?"
"I don't know. They were part of – of some experiment…I don't have all the facts here, but it – it looks as if this experiment was the p – precursor to his current project Eternity. The Apocalypse Project failed, and – and Project Eternity was s – started."
"So what do the two projects have in common? What is it that he's trying to achieve from them?"
"I don't know. Whatever it is…it's the key to everything."
"The Apocalypse Project created the Horsemen. The Eternity Project created constantium. What's the link between them? I don't see it."
"I suppose – I suppose they could both be used as weapons. But Mag – Magneto couldn't control the Horsemen…whereas he can control con – constantium. Maybe that's it."
Helios frowned, "Where does Gemini fit into all this?"
"What do you – what do you mean?"
"Her mother – who's one of the twelve – gave her over to Van Gaarde, to use as part of his research for the Horsemen. Or so Vertigo told me. Anyway – if Van Gaarde was working for Magneto, then Magneto must have known what happened to Gemini. Why did he wait two whole years and then tell Pyro to rescue her?"
"Maybe he – he decided she was no use any more."
"Then why not just kill her? If he didn't care about her, which seems obvious now, why tell Pyro to rescue her?"
"You're right – it doesn't make s – sense."
"There must be an explanation…there must be something that makes it all clear. Keep looking on the computers."
She nodded and turned back to the machine in front of her.
Gemini and Cassandra were carefully making their way through the ocean base towards the research laboratories. Security seemed sparse. They weren't sure whether that was a good or a bad thing. Either Magneto didn't know they were here, or he was trying to set some kind of trap. Gemini was caught in two minds. While she wanted to avoid him so they could safely carry out their mission, she also wanted to confront him and demand an explanation for what he was doing, and why he was abandoning the principles he had once taught her. She wondered too about where Dad was and what he was doing, and why he hadn't come with them. They'd been just about to go when something had obviously come up that had distracted him. Maybe it was something to do with Gaia's husband – Oculus – they'd been busy trying to find him. While Gemini liked to think she was grown-up and independent, she was still deeply devoted to her father and was never entirely happy unless Pyro was around.
They had to duck out of sight as a pair of humans in white lab coats walked past. Cassandra wondered if they had any connection with Magneto or if they just happened to work here. Perhaps this entire complex was now under Magneto's control. Hopefully they would find out soon enough. Once the humans had disappeared, the two girls continued. They weren't exactly sure where to head for. Their two objectives were to try and find the X-Men, and to try and find anything that might tell them what Magneto was doing with the constantium. They were following signs that read Main Research Lab. That seemed like a good place to start.
Nobody in the base seemed to be on any kind of alert. This was strange. Surely Magneto knew they were here? He'd used his psychic powers on them earlier, so he must have known. Or maybe he was just overconfident and didn't think they had any chance of getting in. Or maybe he didn't know about the redundant vent shaft they'd used, and was sitting waiting for them to attack the front entrance. The girls didn't know which, and there was no point wasting time wondering about it. They just had to take advantage of the slack security while they still could.
After following the signs for some time, eventually they reached the entrance to the main research lab. In front of the door stood a security guard, who looked bored and indifferent. Clearly he was not expecting any trouble. The girls took this as an encouraging sign. Obviously nobody knew they were here. Keeping out of sight, they spied on the guard and tried to decide how they might get past him.
"We just need to distract him," Gemini whispered. "Once he's out of the way, we can duck inside the door and he'll never even know we were here."
"I don't think it will be that easy," said Cassandra. "Look, the door has swipe-card access. We won't be able to get in unless we can get a valid ID card from somewhere."
"OK, we'll steal his. We'll knock him out when his back is turned. I'll use my twin to distract him."
"Right. Good luck."
"Wait here until he turns his back on us."
Gemini summoned her twin, fighting back the impulse to cry out from the exertion and the pain. The twin stood, and hurried towards the security guard.
He glanced up to see the teenager running towards him.
"Help me!" she cried. "He's been shot and there's blood all over; I don't think he's gonna make it! You've gotta help me!"
She grabbed him by the arm and tugged him away from the door. Normally he would have instantly floored and searched anybody who wasn't on his list of authorised personnel, but being a pretty young girl she had thrown off his normal reactions. It wasn't quite so easy to be rough with her; no man wanted to hurt a cute little thing like this…
"Hey! Wait!" he demanded. "How did you get in here? Who's been shot? I didn't hear anything!"
As the startled guard was led past their hiding place, Gemini and Cassandra slipped out and both hit the man on the back of the head. He fell without even a whisper, unconscious on the floor.
"Nice work," said Cassie.
Gemini extended her hand and touched the twin, absorbing her back into herself, the two becoming one once again. Cassandra knelt down and searched the security guard's unmoving body, eventually discovering the ID card in his inner pocket. She swiped it through the panel on the door, an LED flashed green, and the door swung open.
"We'll need to hide him," she said. "Help me drag him through."
The guy was heavy and moving him wasn't easy, but the girls' combined strength managed to tug him through the doorway, whereupon they quickly looked around for somewhere to stow him until he woke up. Hopefully that would take quite a while. Gemini gasped slightly and moved closer to her friend, "This – oh, Cassie – this reminds me of the place where I was held."
There was a small store cupboard full of cleaning materials that didn't look as if it had been accessed in a while. They stuffed the unconscious man in there, piling cleaning stuff in front of him just in case anyone did happen to open the door.
"OK," said Gemini. "Now we can get to work. Where do you think we should start looking?"
"Wherever they've been working on constantium. If they have a dedicated lab, we can check it out. If not we can look for your mom's office."
"She's not my mom!" the duplicator snapped. "The only mother I ever had was Mystique!"
"Keep your voice down or someone will hear us. Let's move."
It had only been a guess on Cassandra's part, but turning the next corner they found themselves facing a door labelled CONSTANTIUM RESEARCH LAB. HIGH SECURITY. AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY. Beside the door was another card-swipe panel. Taking the ID card they'd stolen from the guard, Cassie swiped through. The LED flashed red and the door remained closed.
"It didn't work?" said Gemini in dismay.
"No. This guy's card won't let us in…he must not have high enough clearance."
"What do we do? Steal another card?"
"We may have to, but we'll come back here later. Let's see what else we can find."
"Hey, I've got an idea," said Gemini suddenly. "Is there any way we can contact Aqua?"
"Yeah. Gaia gave me one of their communicators. What do you want to talk to her for?"
"She's hacking into the computers, right? What if she can get into the security system and open this door for us?"
Cassie shrugged, "I guess it's worth a shot, but I don't want to talk to her. Here's the communicator."
Gemini played around with it for a minute or two until she had figured out how it worked. Then she set it to call Aqua's frequency, and waited for a response:
"Uh – hello?"
"Aqua? Hi, it's Gemini. Are you at the computers yet?"
"Yeah, I – we've found out quite a lot here. How are – how are you doing?"
"Not so good. We need your help. There's a door we can't open. We've got a security pass but it doesn't have the right clearance. Can you, like, open the door for us with the computer?"
"Um…probably not d – directly. But I can p – probably change the security c – clearance assigned to the card you're carrying. Hold on."
Cassie handed the security guard's ID card to her friend.
"Right, I'm ready," said Aqua. "Give me the – the number on the card."
Gemini read it out. A minute or two passed and then Aqua said, "Are you still there? Great. I've assigned your – your card the highest security there is. It seems there are only t – twelve other cards with that level of security. Guess whose those are."
"Magneto and his friends," said Gemini. "OK, thanks Aqua. Love you."
She hung up and handed the comm. back to Cassandra. The two girls hurried back to the entrance of the constantium research lab. Gemini swiped the card and gave an cry of triumph when the LED went green and the door slowly slid open.
"We're in!" she squealed excitedly.
Proud that her idea to open the door had worked, she just wished Dad had been here to see it. She adored doing things to impress him. Nothing made the girl happier than knowing her father was proud of her. Eagerly she hurried inside the constantium lab. Cassandra was putting the communicator back inside her inner pocket. She was beginning to wish she had been the one to speak to Aqua. Part of her wanted to try and repair some of the dislike between them. She knew there was no way she could ever hate the aquatic girl as much as she had before. They'd saved each other's life, and that was something that would stay with them forever. Their relationship would not be the same again. Cassandra sensed that she was deliberately avoiding talking to Aqua because another part of her didn't want to make peace with the girl who'd stolen everything from her. She pushed these thoughts aside and told herself later was the time. Quickly checking behind her to make sure nobody was around, she entered the constantium research area.
To find Alexandra and Elena Cartëasis face to face.
"I guess this explains why the security in the rest of the base is so low."
"Yeah. Looks as though something just happened here…"
Vertigo and Atlas moved forward, keeping in the shadows, drawing closer. Ahead of them a large number of security guards were clustered: big, beefy men, heavily armed and alert. Among them was a face the two boys recognised.
"That's the guy who led the attack on the school," Atlas whispered, and Vertigo nodded.
The man in question, clearly in charge of the gang of security gorillas, was saying something. As they got closer, they could make it out:
"All right, settle down, all of you! We have nothing to fear! The mutants have escaped their cells and are holding a position in the west security wing, but they are few in number and there is no other entrance to that area. We have weapons, they don't; we can call reinforcements, they can't; we can afford to wait as long as it takes, they can't. We are professionals, we are the best, so we'll move in and neutralise them."
One security man turned to mutter to another, "Bet that's the same 'we are the best' speech he gave to Team Alpha. Didn't do them much good at the mutant school."
The leader did not overhear, "Team Bravo, move out!"
The rest of the humans hurried after him as he led the way out of the briefing room and off in the opposite direction to the one Vertigo and Atlas had just come.
"Do you think he was talking about the X-Men?" asked Atlas.
"Seems likely."
"Well, shouldn't we go help them?"
"That's not our mission. The X-Men can look after themselves."
"Are you sure?"
Vertigo nodded, "Come on, we're supposed to be going to the docks to check out this submarine. We can take advantage of the fact that their security force is off chasing the X-Men."
He moved off in the direction of the docks. Atlas hesitated for a moment, looking back in the direction the humans had just gone. Were they really doing the right thing? Was Vertigo thinking straight or was he letting his dislike of the X-Men get in the way? Aren't they our allies now? Shouldn't we help them if they're in trouble? Don't we need their help against Magneto? I'm not sure we're doing the right thing here…
But Atlas decided to trust his friend. After all, they had all followed Atlas through the tunnel despite the fact many of them were uncomfortable with it. He should do the same now and follow Vertigo even if he didn't agree with him. He hurried after the ninja.
The guards had got sloppy, only for a matter of seconds, but it had been enough for to Shapeshifter to change into liquid and slip through the door they'd left ajar. Seconds later, just as they realised their mistake, it was already too late for them to do anything about it. Solidifying in the blink of an eye, he had spun to kick one of the guards into the wall, ducking gunfire from the other two, then melting back into a liquid. Startled for a second, the men didn't react fast enough as the liquid glided across the floor and behind them. Shapeshifter changed back to solid and chopped both of them on the neck. Stepping over their unconscious figures, he had set about opening the cells that held his friends.
"Chris!" Shock exclaimed when saw him, hurrying forward to throw her arms around him.
Relief flowed through her as she held him, glad that he wasn't hurt, that her nightmares hadn't come to pass. Drifting in and out of consciousness since being drugged, she had imagined all sorts of terrible and horrific tortures that their enemies might have inflicted on her friends.
"Chris, what's happening? Who's doing this to us?"
"I dunno. Here, keep watch while I get the others out."
"What about Marina? Where is she? Is she safe?"
"Last I knew, she was with Annie and the boy."
Fliss relaxed, "She'll be safe with them. Where are we, do you think?"
He said nothing. She guessed there was no way he could know any more than she did herself. Thinking aloud, she went on, "I don't get it. Whoever's doing this – whoever captured us – must know enough about our individual powers to have imprisoned in the way they did earlier. Yeah? I found myself attached to some kind of electrode…if I'd let go, Kurt would have been fried. It was ingenious, but it was really…well, I dunno what the word is I'm looking for…cruel?"
Shapeshifter tried the next door. It was electronically locked, but he found a swipe card on one of the unconscious guards. Shock gathered up the men's weapons, and threw them inside her cell. She could have used them to defend herself, but…well, it was an unwritten rule that mutants didn't use weapons. The only thing she wanted to do with the guns was keep them away from the guards, in case they should wake unexpectedly. She looked round as she heard Rogue's voice, "Chris!"
From the door Shapeshifter had just swiped open, came Rogue and Scott. Without his visor, Scott's eyes were screwed tight shut and he was feeling his way about, guided as best she could by Rogue.
"Where are we?" asked their leader.
"I dunno," said Chris. "Where's your visor?"
"They took it."
"And the spare?"
Rogue said, "They were coming for us, trying to drug us. I'd managed to work the visor out of Scott's shoulder compartment, but there wasn't time for him to put it on. We left it behind in the hope someone would find it."
"It seemed a vain hope," Scott shrugged. "But you can never be sure. Perhaps Annie will come after us."
"How did you manage to get us free?" said Rogue.
Chris answered, "The guards got careless, and I managed to slip out. I don't know where we are. If the rest of us are here, we can start to have a look around."
He went to try the next cell.
"Do we still think Pyro is responsible for this?" Shock frowned.
"Of course not," said Cyclops. "He would never work with humans."
"What about Magneto? Does the same reasoning apply?"
"Perhaps not. Pyro despises humans and would never associate with them, full stop. Magneto on the other hand is canny enough to use them for his own ends. In short, he'd do anything to accomplish his goal. I'm becoming more and more certain he's involved here somewhere."
"So what does he want?"
"That's what we have to find out. The first thing to do is learn where we are and assess our situation. Rogue, stay with me. Fliss, scout on ahead."
"OK."
Shock ran forward lightly, her lithe figure and small feet making no noise on the hard floor. The corridor extended forwards for several yards until ending in a T-junction. The other end was a dead-end, where Chris was still checking the cells. Felicity hurried forward to the fork. Approaching carefully, she listened out for the sound of anybody nearby. Hearing nothing, she chanced a glance out into the next passage. She looked both ways and saw nobody. To the right, the passage ended at an elevator. To the left, it went on for some distance then curved round to the right. She decided to check the elevator first, and ran over towards it.
She realised too late that the lift was already descending. As the doors slid open and the heavily armed guards swarmed out, she had just enough time to fire a lightning bolt in their direction. The men scattered, dropping to the floor and rolling back to their feet in seconds. The electric bolt harmlessly impacted on the wall, but it had given Fliss enough time to retreat. She hurried back to the fork and into the corridor where her friends were waiting. Bullets spat around her, narrowly avoiding her fleeing body, and she managed to return to the first passageway unharmed.
Chris had freed the rest by now, and the six of them looked up in surprise as she came hurtling towards them.
"More guards!" she said breathlessly. "They tried to kill me! I barely got away!"
"How many?" said Scott.
"I don't know. A dozen, two dozen, I couldn't really tell."
"All right. We'd better get ready. Storm, Iceman, Shock, I want you at the front. If you can draw them towards us, then Nightcrawler can teleport behind them and attack from that side. Shapeshifter, Rogue, stay back, at least until some of the guards are disarmed."
The others nodded, and began moving into position. It was only seconds before the guards came charging around the corner. Bullets began to rip through the air towards the seven X-Men, but a hastily created wall of ice provided a temporary shield. That gave them enough time to hurry into position. Her heart thumping, Felicity rolled over to avoid gunfire and launched a lightning bolt at the first row of soldiers. At the same moment Storm had unleashed a mini-whirlwind, which flung the men off their feet, the lightning catching one of them a glancing blow on the shoulder. It was enough to give him a serious jolt and stun him, at least for now. As the humans quickly regained their balance, Shock fired another bolt of electricity. This time she failed to hit anyone, and she knew her nervousness was throwing off her aim. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
Rogue reacted swiftly to pull Scott out of the way of a stray bullet. There's no way out of here, she thought desperately, if we can't get rid of these guys quickly, they'll call for reinforcements, and then we'll really be in trouble! She looked up to see how her friends were faring. Her husband had succeeded in trapping three of the guards inside a cocoon of ice, and they were trying vainly to chip a way out from within. The other guards had retreated slightly, clearly taken by surprise at how quickly and smoothly the X-Men had moved into action. Shock fired another lightning bolt, but most of the soldiers were now carrying small plastic riot shields, and the electric charge harmlessly smacked into one of them.
"Uh – help!" she called urgently.
Storm had been forced to leap aside to dodge incoming fire, and had lost control of the whirlwind. The guards took full advantage, surging forward as a group, two or three of them remaining back to provide covering fire. This turned out to be a mistake, as Nightcrawler suddenly teleported behind the covering force, kicking two of them to the ground before they knew what was happening. The third man almost reacted in time, but Kurt's tail grabbed his rifle out of his arms, and hit him over the head with it, knocking him out cold.
Unfortunately this did little to halt the advance of the main group. Rogue pulled Scott back as far as they could go. Shapeshifter had been staying just in front of them to provide some cover, but he had little choice of action now as he ran forward to engage the soldiers. One man wasn't fast enough to raise his plastic shield, and a lightning bolt sent him flying. Ice enveloped two more humans, and a fresh whirlwind left another group flat on their backs. The main group was, however, still advancing towards them, and the mutants were being driven further and further back. Soon they would run out of room and there would be bloodshed.
"Rogue? What's happening!"
"Scott, stay down!"
Storm screamed as she was hit in the leg, and fell to the floor. In a flash of an instant she was gone as Nightcrawler teleported to grab her away. Bewildered for a second, the humans quickly recovered their wits and began firing at the onrushing Shapeshifter. He shifted to liquid and the bullets passed harmlessly through his fluid form. Holding his body in a half-solid, half-liquid form, he wrestled two men to the floor and kicked away their weapons. Changing back to liquid, he glided away from danger before the humans could start to think clearly. Iceman was down, not moving, and Shock was standing over him, desperately trying to defend him with lightning bolts. The guards' plastic shields were proving to be an adequate defence, and she was looking more and more frantic.
"Rogue? How're we doing?"
"Bobby's been hit! He's been hit!"
"Point me in the right direction and I'll open my eyes!"
"What? No, that's way too risky!"
"It sounds like I have to! Rogue!"
But she was no longer there. Unable to stop herself, she had run forward to her husband's unmoving form, and was despairingly trying to pull Iceman to safety. She ducked as bullets flew overhead, and looked up in time to see Shock being hit over the head with a rifle butt. The electrifier was knocked out cold.
"Kurt! Where are you!" Rogue screamed.
Nightcrawler was too busy trying to protect Storm from danger. Rogue began pulling off her gloves as the men approached her, but she knew there was nothing she could do. Even if she drained and killed one of them, it would do nothing to stop the rest enacting revenge.
No! There must be something I can do!
She suddenly realised that the inside of the rifle barrel being pointed at her might well be the last thing she ever saw. With a speed borne out of desperation, Rogue sprang to her feet in an instant, grabbing the man round the throat and twisting him around. Her hand came into contact with his skin and she began to drain his life force. Weakened by her power, his only reaction was to feebly claw at her. His compatriots swiftly turned their guns towards Rogue, but she had the guard's body positioned in front of her as a shield, and the other men dared not fire for fear of killing their comrade.
This wouldn't last. She knew that. She had to act while they were still uncertain. She couldn't keep this up for long. Eventually her draining would kill the man, and then his use as a living shield would be over. Rogue threw the man away from her, sending him flying into the rest of the humans. In the few seconds it took them to recover, she was running over towards Scott, grabbing him and turning him to face the soldiers.
"Now! Open your eyes!" she screamed.
But it was already too late. Before Scott could react, the bullets were already flying towards them. Rogue knew that they were both dead. There was no time to duck. In a split second she wondered if her life would flash before her eyes. She wondered if there had been another option, something else she might have tried, a chain of events in which she might not have died. She wondered if she would see her friends again in whatever came after death.
As it happened, she didn't get the chance to find out. The bullets had stopped, impossibly, in mid-air mere inches in front of her eyes. Instinct made her grab Scott and quickly move out of the way. It was a good few seconds before her brain realised what had happened, and then she looked up to see what was going on.
In front of her the guards were dying. On their knees or writhing on the floor, each was being throttled to death by his own rifle. The weapons had bent into rings and were around the throats of the helplessly struggling soldiers. The men pulled frantically at the 'collars' which choked them, desperately trying to loosen the constricting force. It was clear that it was a battle they were never going to win. Eventually, one by one, they fell to the ground dead. The sudden silence was like that of a tomb.
"What's going on?" came a surprised Scott's voice.
Rogue immediately hurried over to check on Iceman, but stopped before she got there. For it was in that instant that she recognised the figure standing at the end of the corridor. No. It couldn't be. It was impossible! It had to be impossible. It was like seeing a ghost from the grave, for it was definitely him. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in shock.
"You're alive!" she gasped.
Magneto merely smirked, and lowered the hand he had partially outstretched. Then the suspended bullets dropped to the floor, and the rifles untwisted and sprang away from the throats of the dead men. Rogue was instinctively on the defensive, moving towards Iceman to protect his unmoving form. Magneto made no threatening moves, so she allowed herself to relax slightly, momentarily.
"Magneto! What are you doing here? What do you want?"
"To open your eyes. I am not your enemy. You have been blinded from the truth."
"What are you talking about?"
The metal master held up Scott's visor and threw it to her, "I will explain. Rouse your friends and I will tell you everything. I only hope we have enough time left to face our real enemy."