- CHAPTER TEN -

Nothing But A Number

There was a dull ache that banged uncomfortably around Storm's head. She felt something judder and she slowly raised her head, opening her eyes. Wherever she was, it was dark. She felt her hands shackled behind her back, limbs sore from her fall to the ground. Whatever she was in, it appeared to be travelling, for she could feel movement. Her eyes struggled to see through the darkness, and it didn't help that her vision was still blurry.

Then, suddenly, she heard a whisper, "Storm!"

She quickly looked around, and besides her, she recognised Logan sat there. His arms too were behind his back. Then it slowly came upon her. Both sides of the transport had rows of seated mutants, a lot of them unconscious, but all of them silent as they sat bound and drugged.

"Logan.." she said softly, her voice quiet and weak-sounding. Her head ached constantly. She must have hit it badly.

"You've been out for a while," whispered Logan, "I was worried."

"I got knocked unconscious," muttered Storm, her eyes closing as she groaned, "And hit my head." She blinked slowly before looking around again. "Are these all mutants? All of us have been captured?"

"Yeah.."

Just then, the transport stopped and the pair fell quickly silent. Storm glanced around nervously. They were here, wherever they had taken the X-Men, and countless other mutants.

"Logan?" Storm called softly.

"It's ok.." he answered in a whisper, but tone sounded disheartened and false.

With a sudden rattle, the chains that held every mutant's arms were release from its clasps on the wall. The cuffs around their ankles unlocked as one. At the end of the vehicle, double doors pulls back, revealing a gloomy outdoors, distorted by the heavy fall of rain. The mutants were bound into to rows, all of their wrists still fastened upon the line of chain. The chains were tugged by murky figures outside, and slowly, with dread, the mutants began to walk towards the tugging, those that resisted were pulled off their feet, noisily hitting the floor.

Behind her, Storm felt Logan come up close, bending his head to whisper in her ear, "Just hold on.." Storm looked round at him slowly in silence. He was going to try and break free? How could he still have hope? He nodded his head once before gently pushing her forth before she could be pulled off her feet. As they made their way through the long inside of the vehicle, Storm made a quiet noise of surprise as she heard a rattle and saw Logan's bound wrists pass over her face as he lower his arms either side of her body. The tightened chains quickly relaxed once Logan fell still, his arms cradling Storm's middle almost protectively due to their shackled status. "They forgot something," he whispered quietly and a sudden sound of Logan's exit claws was heard as they sliced through his knuckles.

With a sudden twist of his arms, the chain holding the row of mutants together was cut free. Logan pulled his arms up back over Storm's head and the chains out of the loop in his cuffs. Instantly, other mutants began to do the same with cheers. Logan quickly ran to the opposite row of mutants, slicing their chain into two halves. People were quickly fleeing, even though their wrists were still cuffed together. But they were no longer chained to the guards awaiting them.

"Hey, what the - ?" came confused voices at the opened end of the truck.

"C'mon!" Logan growled in Storm's ear as he ran forth, claws at the ready.

It was futile. They were in enemy territory now.

"Logan!"

With a bellow of fury, Logan leapt at two of the guards holding the loose chain ends, pinning them down into the saturated dirt with the impalement of his claws. Out of the surrounding darkness, gunshots fired and with a roar of defeat, Logan was thrown away from the dead bodies, falling under the barrage of many rapid gunshots. The other mutants reacted in fear. The confusion led to a whole moment of panic, and mutants began fleeing into the darkness. Gunshots and screams could be heard in the distance. Storm ran forward through the crowds, seeing Logan lay sprawled face-first in the mud with bloodied stains marking the back of his vest top.

"Logan!" she cried as she scrambled towards him, hurrying down the ramp and skidding across the puddle-filled mud.

"X-Man! Get her!"

Out of the shadows of the surrounding rain, soldiers closed in upon Storm, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her backwards, away from Logan. She screamed and trashed, her feet furiously trying to dig into the squelching sludge. But her feet easily slipped as she was soon dragged away, her cries only mingling in with the furious shouts about her and the patter of the heavy downpour.

Several of the guards surrounded Logan, pulling his limp body upwards. With commands from one of the group leaders, he was dragged through the mud into the large wire fenced compound. Their boots tread through the thick mud, passing across the trails of other previous captives. Some of the mutants who had not got far with their bid for freedom were also hauled in. Whilst they were barely conscious, they were not shot. Instead, each had been calmed by the sedative needles; previously used upon the mutants at the mansion.

Storm was still violently pulled along, even though her struggles had ceased to a enervated limpness. The harsh tugging caused previous injuries to burn and twinge, only making her general despair heavier as tears rolled down her dirtied cheeks. Hair, usually brilliant ivory, hung limp and dank over her smooth cheeks, sticking upon her wet forehead. The rain continued to thrash down, being blown violently as the wind picked up. The drops of water hit like miniature blades, each strike icily cold. The downpour blurred their surroundings, of which Storm could barely make out. Once they had passed the tall wire fencing, a large brick wall loomed up from the deep shadows. Thick gates had creaked shut behind their entry, locking loudly in place. Glimpses of rows of small buildings could be seen in the dark distance, but she lost sight of them as she was dragged upon a steel ramp leading into a small metal hut. Blindingly white light quickly destroyed the darkness.

Each mutant was brought through in a row, whether by force or plain resignation to the bleak circumstances. The mutant in front of her was forcibly brought ahead. She was one of the more active of the captives, angrily screaming and lashing out at every opportunity. It was the same vigour Logan had presented when he had tried to bid freedom. Two guards held her at either arm, struggling against her grim determination that acted with her bare feet. She dug her feet against the stone floor, but was pushed off her feet when a third guard stepped in. With a howl of rage she collapsed onto her knees, this seeming to infuriate her as opposed to the hopeless wails about them. She began shouting angrily, words an exotic tongue of fluent Spanish that Storm could not understand. They must have been unpleasant, for she hissed and snarled, glaring at the men holding her tight.

The woman was abruptly pulled to her feet and pulled forward to a small desk, but she was now refusing to cooperate with her feet and so was merely dragged along by the strength of the guards holding her.

"Hold her still," said a voice behind the desk calmly. Her determined resistance was nothing new to his eyes. The third guard stepped from behind the mutant, the same one who had tripped her. Whilst the same pair held her by the arms, the third guard came to her front, roughly holding her by the face and shoving her closer to the desk. The man behind the metal desk gave her an apathetic once over before he turned an silver appliance to her, thrusting it towards her right eye. She quickly began to pull back, but the tight grip about her face held her still. A sudden blue light zipped from the centre of the piece, which resembled that of a barcode reader. The woman reacted with a cry of surprise, her eyes soon closing. But the man was done, returning the appliance to its stand in front of him. He turned to his computer, tapping a key.

"Ria Alvarez. Astral, huh? Now, 1406."

The woman made an angry sound as she tried to reach forward to him. But the guards quickly pulled her upwards, walking out of a second doorway. Storm felt herself being pushed forward, but something had just dawned upon her. She stared down at the appliance awaiting her before she looked up to see the woman slowly being pulled down the ramp and into an ongoing circular tunnel.

"No.." she whispered quietly, eyes settling onto the computer, "NO! Cerebro!"

The woman being taken away spun round, staring at Storm. Their gazes met, and Storm quickly recognised her as the woman they saw fighting outside her home in New York. Astral. But the woman was forcibly swept off her feet and carried away despite her desperate struggles.

The silver appliance was raised once more, this time facing Storm. She stared at it fearfully, automatically unmoving. They had taken Cerebro. They had the database!

The blue light flashed into Storm's pupil, causing her to give a sudden gasp and close her eyes just as Astral had done.

"Ororo Munroe," read the man in a smug tone. "Storm. 1407." He raised his head slowly, smiling sinisterly up at her. The blaringly white lights above him highlighted the rough surface of his face, causing the neatly clipped dark moustache above his upper lip to gleam faintly, "Sixth X-man member, but I heard the last one was brought with you." He leant back in his chair languidly, giving a nod, "Good, good," he commented carelessly before waving a hand to send her away. Instantly, those holding her forced her down the tunnel Astral had just been brought through.

The patter of rain heavily hit the rooftop of the tunnel, echoing loudly all the time she walked down it. The exit brought them to a small corridor, but she was roughly turned out of it and outside. The expensive electronics that formed the security of the compound existed outdoors too, but the appearance was much bleaker. The mud was even worse here. Squelching rough paths navigating between high cages of fencing, each one guarded by numerous electrics. As she passed she peered through the dripping wet fences, seeing that within each was a metal building, stretching into the distance. These too were monitored by man-made security. As Storm paused to watch her surroundings, she was merely pushed on ahead by her ever-silent guards.

Eventually, they stopped, unlocking one of the fence gates with a series of complicated actions that Storm's barely witnessed. She was then thrust inside, still tightly held and led up to the building within. This then was unlocked and she was led inside, passing a wall sign that simply stated, 'H'. It was like something of an animal pen. A narrow walkway separated wire fencing that reached up to the ceiling. Within each large cage were several mutants, sat drearily on plain beds or miserably watching the floor. When Storm entered, some expectantly looked up, but some didn't bother, perhaps so used to the goings on after their lengthy capture that it didn't interest them anymore.

She was led through the walkway, pulled to a halt as they reached one before she was shoved inside. The door behind her was banged shut and locked before she had even realised what had happened. She span round, staring as the two men walked away, ignoring the feeble cries from some of the other mutants. Besides her cage entrance was a sign identifying the pen as '6'. Storm stepped backwards slowly, turning, she looked around, desperate to recognise a familiar face.

"Storm!"

In the opposite cage, numbered '12' she saw Scott suddenly run forward against the wire of his cage. With a soft gasp Storm did the same, though there was still great distance between them due to the walkway. "Scott! I'm sorry.. we tried.."

"It's alright," came a second voice, and Storm looked down besides Scott to see Charles Xavier sat on one of the beds, his wheelchair confiscated, "I trust you and Wolverine were admirable and brave in your attempts, but it was a difficult task and practically impossible."

Storm sighed quietly, resting her head on the cagewire in front of her, "Where's everyone else?"

"Siren is just there, but she's asleep now," Charles pointed to cage '11' besides theirs before he looked back over to Storm, "The others.. I'm not sure." Storm turned slowly, studying her empty but large cage. Looking around the room and into the cage directly besides hers, she saw that each cage held three mutants. Clearly there were more to come to hers. Logan had been far behind her when they were brought in, he wouldn't be joining her in this cage.

"I suggest you sleep," came Charles' voice again, "You need to rest yourself."

"But Professor – "

"There is nothing we can do, at least without any rest. I do understand your immediate concern for freedom.. but for now I'm afraid that isn't likely."

Storm stepped backwards and sat down on one of the beds with a defeated bow of her head. Her shackled wrists pulled both hands to her face as she covered her eyes with a shaking hands. Soft sounds of sobs could be heard amongst the other sounds of unhappiness around the large building.

"Please, my dear.." said Charles softly as he pushed himself up. He closed his eyes slowly, exhaling a soft sigh.

Storm wiped her eyes slowly, although her burning lids were not quite finished yet. She obediently laid herself down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling of her pen through watering eyes, "What's that?" she asked quietly, eyes meeting a small red light that was fixed above her cage.

"It nullifies our powers, it is in every cage."

Storm merely closed her eyes against the force of hot tears and rolled herself away from the ceiling to press her body against the cold cage fencing. With her hands against her face she cried quietly. The desperation, anger and feeling of failure were overwhelming and disturbing to her emotions.

She could do nothing but cry along with the others..

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