The dark tunnel of the spillway stretched out into blackness before Mystique, only basically lit. Enough for her to walk safely along the tyre grids for vehicles. She kept her posture stiff and masculine, taking firm, swinging strides that matched the man she imitated. Wolverine. She glared around the spillway imposingly, Wolverine's usually stern glare in place. But yet her eyes were really taking in her surroundings for her own safety. Whilst she was a confident and talented being, she was entering dangerous territory. She knew the spillway could flood any minute if Stryker was feeling reckless.
"Stryker?" she called out fiercely, her arms outstretched beckoningly. She slowed as she came upon the sealed spillway doors. Her eye located a camera focused upon her, "Stryker!" she called again, fists then clenching as she continue. "Stryker!" she glared directly at the camera. Behind her, secret doors suddenly whirred open, and she quickly glanced round to see armed soldiers advancing towards her hurriedly. She looked over her opposite shoulder to see more soldier coming out of another door.
The soldiers reached her, as she slowly raised her hands to show she was surrendering. "Move and you're dead," said one of the soldiers roughly. The soldiers swiftly grabbed her upper arms as they began forcing her limbs into a special adamantium cuff that would mean ejecting her Wolverine claws would kill her. Mystique raised an eyebrow deridingly as she watched them lock her wrists in place. The tight grips remained as the spillway doors opened, and she was walked forward into the base where more soldiers were stood with weapons. She was held still on the platform as the spillway doors rumbled shut behind her. Further ahead, Stryker entered, passing forth to stare up at her. Mystique had a small smirk on her face, cocking her head imposingly as she watched him unblinkingly.
Stryker quickly turned his back on her, muttering to one of his soldiers fiercely. "The one thing I know better than anyone is my own work. Seal the room. Shoot it."
Busted.. thought Mystique idly as she kept cautious eyes on Stryker.
"Seal the room!"
"Step away!" the nearby Sergeant cried, pointing his gun at her. Immediately, with a tantalising smirk, Mystique forward flipped as she reverted back to her usual form. Her smaller hands slipped through the manacles easily, whilst both of her feet sharply hit the soldiers behind her in the head. She swung round, one leg aiming for the next soldier whilst the adamantium cuffs were thrown at another. As weapons began to be fired, she spun herself towards the nearest soldier, using him as a shield from the bullets. It wasn't long before he had served his purpose, and she back flipped off the platform, uncaringly throwing him away. She soared down, punching another soldier in the face. The man behind her didn't have time to react when she grabbed him close, another shield as bullets rocketed her way. He received many wounds before she threw him to one side. She glanced round; the doorway she wished to get through was closing. She raced towards it, slipping onto her side as she lightly skimmed across the floor through the narrowing gap, a saluting middle finger being her farewell to the soldiers.
She quickly sprung to her feet, absently dusting herself as she strode forward, her form quickly shifting as it changed to take on the appearance of Stryker. She saw the open doors of the control room up ahead; one lone soldier sat staring up monitors where the action had took place. However she froze still as a soldier ran down a nearby corridor, coming to her side. He stared at her, but his weapon wasn't raised. "Stryker. Sir," he said stiffly, nodding his head. Mystique nodded her head in response before she continued on towards the control room.
"We have a metamorph loose!" she told the soldier at the computer as she came into the control room. "Could be anybody!"
The soldier turned from the control panel to stare at her before he turned back to face the monitors, "Anybody?" Mystique made a swift, silent motion to the soldier who had come with her; she grabbed his rifle by the barrel, catching him by surprise as she wrenched it upwards to smack him in the face. At the sound, the soldier in the chair turned. "Wha..?" but the rifle was spun round expertly, striking him across the face. With a muffled noise he was thrown against his keyboard, unconscious. Mystique quickly stepped forward to close the circular doorway behind her, eyes then noticing on a nearby monitor that Stryker was running for the control room. She quickly spun round; noticing hm, Yuriko and his soldiers came to a halt as the three portions of the thick metal door closed. She bent to see their angry faces, blowing a mocking kiss and waving.
As soon as the doors locked shut from her enemies, she turned back to the control panel, throwing the rifle down. With the distinct crackle of her skin, the weathered face of Stryker flaked away to reveal her dark blue features once more. She turned to the unconscious soldier in the seat, grabbing him roughly and tossing him uncaringly on the floor besides his comrade. She settled herself into the seat, glancing up at the monitor, which showed Stryker and his team stood outside the closed doors.
"Can you override the spillway mechanism?" Stryker was asking Sergeant Lyman.
"No, everything is controlled inside that room – that's why the doors are so thick."
Stryker glared at him. "Oh! Really!" he snapped angrily. "Get some charges. Blow the doors open." He turned around, about to address the rest of his team when he saw the active blue light on the camera that watched them. "Take out these cameras!" he said angrily. Mystique watched as Lyman raised his gun, shooting the camera. The image on the monitor fizzled out to black. Undeterred, Mystique slipped her earpiece more securely into her ear, contacting those at the Jet.
"I'm in," she spoke into the headpiece.
From the other side, she heard the impressed voice of Wolverine reply in comment. "She's good."
"You have no idea." Magneto's voice sounded, and Mystique's lips took on a self-satisfied smirk. She leant forth to the keyboard, quickly typing as she began searching through the computers for the command to open the spillways doors to let the other mutants inside. As she sat typing, she glanced up at a nearby monitor, noticing the captured students from Xavier's school in captivity. She quickly turned her eyes away, concentrating on the task at hand. She wasn't here to be a hero. Especially not for Xavier. She quickly continued typing on the keyboard, blazing amber eyes searching the monitor as she shifted through different screens, which gave her no interest.
As she sat working, she heard a faint beeping, passing it off as the computer system. She paid it no mind, for she had just opened the spillway control screen. However, a sudden explosion sounded from behind the closed metal doors. She spun round in her seat, staring. Whatever Stryker had tried, it was unsuccessful. She turned back to the computers, speeding up in her typing. Her fingers deftly tapped the keyboard's 'enter' button, and the image of the spillway doors onscreen began opening. Rather than sitting and waiting, she continued to use the computer to search for Cerebro, looking for any indication of it. Her eyes scanned the map of the base, something then catching her eye.
Behind her, outside the doors a low groan sounded – the doors were being forced open. She slowly pushed to her feet, preparing herself for the possible fight with the soldiers once more. There was a sudden flash of light combined with an explosion that caused Mystique to flinch. A rough, jagged cutout in the door was pulled free, surrounded by smoky residue. A small smile crossed her face. Magneto was here. And sure enough, as the metal fell, he was revealed, backed by the X-Men.
Magneto quickly strode in, making his way towards her. "Have you found it?" he asked her swiftly, ascending the few steps to the control panel.
"A large portion of energy from the dam has been diverted to this chamber." She told him, turning back to the computer. She tapped the keyboard, causing the onscreen map to locate the aforementioned chamber. A spherical grid came to the centre of the screen, summoning Storm's words.
"Cerebro," she said in indication.
Magneto stood close behind Mystique, staring at the monitor. "There it is," he whispered softly. It was like it was just him and Mystique, for neither paid any attention to the X-Men.
"Can you shut it down from here?" asked Storm urgently.
"No," said Mystique stonily, her words a simple lie. Of course she could, that's why Stryker was so anxious to stop her getting to the control room. But she wasn't going to shut it down. She knew Magneto wanted to get to Cerebro for his own means and needed it to be fully operational.
Over her shoulder, Magneto spoke. "Come. There's little time." He didn't want mutants being killed before he could reverse Cerebro. As he turned, Jean was watching him intently.
"Not without us," she said in a tone that meant it would be no other way. Mystique looked round, her eyes fixing a glare on the redhead. Magneto glanced over his shoulder, his gaze meeting Mystiques before he looked back round.
Distraction came in the form of Storm spying the monitor overlooking the captive children. "Oh my God. The children," she gasped as she ran towards the screen. "Kurt, will you come with me?"
Nightcrawler stepped in-between Magneto and Jean who were still glaring at each other. "Yes."
"Where are they?" Storm shot at Mystique, who gave the woman a sharp look before she decided to answer.
"They're being held in a containment cell one level down." She looked round slowly, her eyes locating Logan, who was not participating in the discussion. He was viewing monitors intently. She continued to watch him as Storm spoke.
"All right. We'll get the children and meet you outside Cerebro," she said to Jean.
Jean nodded her head in answer, "Ok, I'll try to find Scott and the Professor." Mystique lifted her head slowly as she saw Logan glance their way, then proceeding to pull out his earpiece. He placed it down and within seconds had cleared the control room.
The X-Men hadn't noticed. "Will you be all right without us?" Storm asked Jean, looking a little wary.
At this, Mystique sent a challenging glare Jean's way. "Yeah, I'll be fine," Jean answered, her voice confident.
Storm then glanced around, to assign a task to their remaining teammate. "Where's Logan?" she asked, frowning. Mystique smiled to herself as the X-Men quickly began scouring the shadows of the room.
But it was Jean who noticed the abandoned silver earpiece left by Logan. "He's gone," she sighed.
Storm turned her eyes upon the device, shaking her head solemnly. "He'll find us when he needs to," she said softly, then striding past Magneto and down the steps. Her gloved hand grabbed the earpiece and pocketed it. Behind her Nightcrawler dutifully followed. She turned, glancing over the three mutants she was about to depart from. "Good luck," she said softly. "Contact us if you're in trouble."
"Likewise," answered Jean.
With that, Storm nodded her head. She turned with a sweep of her silver cape, and her and Nightcrawler hurried out of the control room and off down the corridor. With her fellow teammates out of sight, Jean turned to glance between Magneto and Mystique. "We now work as a team," she told them. Her gaze settling on Magneto. His lips grew thin, but he said nothing. "For mutants," she insisted, glancing upon Mystique, who held nothing but a glare for the woman. "We need to find Scott and the Professor. Mystique, is there any clue where they are?"
Mystique glanced across to Magneto, who nodded his head ever so slightly in indication she should continue. With the confirmation, she turned back to the control panel. "There are other containment cells, but they are empty," she said shortly, no compassion in her words at the task she was doing.
"So what does that mean?" Jean questioned, frowning.
In response, Mystique glanced over her shoulder, answering in a derisive tone at the woman's inability to guess the answer. "It means they're on the move."
Jean's frown remained, but she abruptly turned and hurried down the steps. "Come on," she addressed them sharply, aware that these Brotherhood members required firm handling. "Stay in front of me," she said warningly. Her tone only received glares from Magneto and Mystique.
"Do you know who you are talking to?" asked Magneto softly as he slowly made his way down the steps.
Jean's eyes hardened, a visible flash of red evident as the entire room gave an unsettling rattle. "Do you?"
Magneto gave the woman a dark look before he swiftly strode forward, swinging his cloak over his front. Mystique roughly knocked the shoulder of Jean as she passed, slipping forth to join Magneto's side with a sultry sway of her hips. Jean dismissed the action, and began walking behind them. The trio exited the control room and set off down the corridor. Mystique was concerned however. They needed to formulate a plan.. and they were in the presence of a telepath.
Generally, this was bad news.
I saw X3 last night! It was brilliant! I hope you like my Phoenix reference. Foretelling times to come, indeed. X3 will be included to the story so we know Mystique's adventures and feelings for certain mutants in that film. (If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean!) And if you haven't: STAY TILL AFTER THE CREDITS FOR AN EXTRA CLIP! But for now, please review!