Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own X-Men, X-Men: Evolution, or their characters; all of it belongs to Marvel Comics and their individual creators. The characters of Stacey Lofton, Cole McBride, and Vicki Byrne belong to Stacey Lofton. Aliana LeBeau belongs to Aliana LeBeau. Mithra Gale belongs to stormelle. Everybody else belongs to me, as do the rights to this fic and its storyline.
A/n: Seems the link to my notes didn't work, well they're on LiveJournal under the name jezstone so you can search for that. Here's where I start filling in the holes and make the different parts of the same time fit together. I hope it makes more sense than that sentence did. And I've included some stuff for my wonderous beta, Aliana LeBeau, some more Aliana, and later on some Robert.
Confessions of a Future PastChapter 16: Free Speech
2029—2.25 hours to Kelly's speech
"Alright, you're clear," a deep voice came through the comlink Ghost had placed in her ear. "But be quick."
"You can count on it," she whispered back and rushed towards the door her senses told her many captive mutants were behind.
"The code is 02548" Stacey read off into the communicator and Toby pushed the corresponding buttons. The door opened with a slight whoosh. Ghost pointed at Toby and signalled for him to go in first, sneak up on any guards that may be in the room.
Phantom nodded and vanished before their eyes, then walked into the cell block. Two guards were in the room and were drawing their weapons, slowly heading towards the now open door. He came up behind them silently and with one well practised hit to each guard had them laying unconscious on the floor. "Come on in," he shouted back to the others.
Everyone paused in the doorway for a second, amazed and horrified by the sight in front of them. The room was huge, and along the walls were transparent doors to cells, cells holding mutants inside. It all looked very state of the art, and very clean. "Toby, watch the door, will you? Mithra, let's get these kids out of there."
"Karl, you there?" Ghost's voice came through the comlink.
"Yeah, what's the deal?" he asked, not taking his eyes away from the schematics he'd found on the computers.
"Can you find anything on these cells, how we get them out?"
"Yeah, the guys who designed those were pretty close-minded. The cells are designed to block powers, but only from the inside. The outside is totally vulnerable."
"Wow, that's pretty stupid," Stacey commented.
"But lucky," Mithra added.
"Don't forget suspicious," Lelia reminded. "Let's hurry up and get them out, I smell a trap. Mith, you take that section, I'll get these guys. Stacey, would you like to come help us?"
"I'll be there in a flash, bout time I go to actually do something."
Stacey and Lelia had fried the circuitry on the cells, now all they had to do was get the kids out by knocking down the doors. Each girl took a few cells and started working. It didn't take long with their combined powers. Soon there was only one cell left and Ghost ran through the door, her intangibility bringing her to the other side as well as shorting out the remainder of the technology the door contained.
"Mrs. M?" the teen on the other side asked, surprised to see someone appear in his cell.
"Hey hot-head," she said and grabbed his wrist, and pulled him out of the cell to join the others.
"How did you get here? How did you do that?" he babbled as his saviour signalled to everyone to join her via comlink.
"No time to explain, but we're here to help you, wasn't that obvious?"
"Well, yeah, but I thought you weren't with the X-Men anymore."
"I'm not."
"And I thought you didn't have intangibility anymore."
"I do, but I can very rarely use it. Now no more questions, we've got to get out of this place. Come on everybody, we'll go meet Karl half-way."
A few minutes later they ran into the technopath in the hallway and he told them the way to get out, but that there were a lot of guards running this way. Lelia turned to a blonde girl in the group they'd just rescued, "You're a pretty powerful teleporter, aren't you? Think you can get us outside?"
"No problem," she answered and soon there was a portal under their feet. Next thing anyone knew they were outside.
"Great job blondie," Stacey commented, patting the girl on the back. "So, should we bring them to the mansion or something? I don't think we were ever told what to do next."
"You said Meltdown organised this, right? Maybe we should call him?" Mithra suggested.
"I'd rather not. I'll try and reach Bobby though," Lelia said and raised her watch that doubled as a communication device. She switched the frequency over now that the mission was over. Before she could try and put a call through to Bobby however, she received a message.
"Um, hello?" she asked.
"Lei, thank God I reached you, we need some backup out here. We're outnumbered, even with all my duplicates," Jamie's voice came through the piece still in her ear.
"We're coming," she answered back then looked up at the group of mutants in front of her. "Sorry guys, I know you just got out and such, but it looks like you've just been drafted. Anyone want to get back at your captors and the Futurians?"
Everyone voiced they were in and the blonde spoke up "Where to?"
"Lincoln Centre, we're going to catch Kelly's big speech."
2029—1 hour 45 minutes to Kelly's speech
"I'll go find Meltdown and tell him we're here," Phantom said eagerly as they arrived in the big field outside of the Lincoln Centre where a mutant force was waiting. Toby started running up the hill where Christopher stood staring at the clouds.
"Toby! Don't!" Lelia and Stacey shouted after him uselessly. Lelia groaned and started after him, Aliana right behind her. "I'm coming with, I've got a thing or two t'say to Mr. I'm-in-charge-here."
"Phantom reporting for duty, sir. We've got your back up," Toby said as he reached the top of the hill only a moment before Ghost and Demeter did.
"Back-up! Who the blazes called for backup! I said we didn't need any help!" Meltdown shouted angrily.
"Cut the act, Chris, you know we need 'em, whether you like it or not," Aliana spat at him. "We could use them, but you can put them in the back, they've been locked up for so long, an' who knows how much trainin' they've had."
"Fine, they're our last line then, but don't expect me to use them," he retorted.
"Oh shut it already. These guys aren't kids anymore, they can handle their own, and you need them," Ghost stepped in, feeling she should defend them. They were in the same situation as her after all. They had all the training, all the power, even some experience, all they were lacking was the title of X-Man. And it was because of that that no one respected them.
"I don't need any vigilantes and civilians," Meltdown answered, his temper rising and his hands starting to glow again.
"Ya do an' ya know it," Aliana came to her friend's defence. "This team has experience against the Futurians, experience that you don' have."
"Not to mention those fake mutants, the Futurians, are made from the genes of these kids," Ghost tried to reason.
"A second ago you said they weren't kids. You also told us they weren't mutants, now you're saying they are?" Christopher said, trying to find a flaw in her argument.
"They're not exactly, they're experiments with half-powers. I don't know the whole story, but I know that much, I can sense that I'm right too."
"If it's true, you've known for this long and never told us? This is huge, it could change the whole war!"
"Hey, you are not blaming this on me, Christopher Swainison! I did tell you, many times. In fact, I told the X-Men before you even put on a costume and pretended to help people. And no one wanted to hear it then either. I may have quit the team years ago, but I am still the more experienced here and I know what I'm talking about. So next time someone tries to tell you something, open your empty mind and listen to them; then maybe you won't have to look for another scapegoat. So now you can either listen to what we have to say and let us fight with you, or you can do this on your own and get your bum handed to you. Either way, you are not pinning this on me or any of these kids, got it?"
"No, you listen to me, I'm the X-Man here, the coordinator of this, remember?" Meltman said, now red in the face with glowing eyes as well.
"Forget the X-Men," Demeter jumped in. "This is not you against us, and it's not us against them. It's all of us tryin' to protect ever'one else. We're going t'help our people, even if you won't."
"Exactly. So Mr. Leader, are you going to let us help, or will you step down from your high throne?" Ghost asked, rising to her full height, even if she was still a few inches shorter than Christopher.
He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by someone behind him. "Stand down, Meltman, you're not in charge anymore, I am." Chris spun around quickly, to tell off who had spoken, but quickly shut his mouth when he saw the tall form of Scott Summers standing in front of him.
"You came," Ghost smiled.
"Of coarse. Some kids showed up saying you needed my help. Replic and Luce may have stolen my powers away, but I can still lead this mission, right?"
"No doubt," Aliana confirmed, glad to see Meltdown didn't have the power anymore.
"Uh, Cyclops, I don't mean to disrespect you or anything, but you're wrong. You still have your powers, I can sense them," Lelia interrupted.
"What? I can't use them, I've tried countless times," he said surprised.
"Maybe it's a telepathic block, you did say Luce was involved," Aliana said, trying to help.
"Betting it is, I'll find a telepath for you. But first, we can stay and help, right?" Lelia asked hopefully.
"Of coarse, we're horribly outnumbered and even if you think you quit, you're still an X-Man to me, all of you. Now Meltdown, you go join the group on the left, and tell them to ready themselves. Demeter, you go to the right and do the same, let Iceman know I'm here. Phantom, right? You go and make sure Multiple has a good connection with all those duplicates, I don't want to send any of them out if they're not going to cooperate. And then send him up here so he can watch over them all. Ghost, you find me that telepath, then get up here so you can use those mutation senses to help me plan this attack," Cyclops said, assuming command. Everyone nodded and ran off. This might actually work.
A/n: And there's the 16th chapter! I'm sorry it was so incredibly rushed, I just have so much to explain and put in with such a short period of time to put it in. I didn't get to the 2015 section at all, but I'll put that in the next chapter, don't worry. It's really important, so I wouldn't dream of leaving it out.
Thanks to anyone who has read this far, mangos for you all and cookies if you review. And a thanks once again to my beta who makes sure these chapters make sense for y'all.