I know, I know, such a long wait for such a little chapter! I wish i had a better excuse than 'I can't write bad guys', but i do not. But fear not, gentle and loyal readers (and reviewers! love you the best) for i have nearly completed the next chapter, and it is full of things that go bump and snikt in the night ;) So please review! I gave up caffiene, I have to get my happiness from somewhere!
I own the X-men! But only in DVD form. And really, they're my sisters. I bought them for her birthday, and she loved them. SoI guess I don't own them after all.
Chapter 4
Enter the Emulous
The night was dark, the lights from the city hazy in the distance. A tall man with a cape thrown carelessly across one shoulder stared broodingly at the horizon, watching the planes flying to and from LaGuardia. There was an air of sadness about the man, a slight vulnerability to his features as he stood alone in the darkness. Though it was spring, the chilly air still bit into him, making him shiver slightly.
"M-master?" A tentative voice stammered. The man turned his head almost imperceptibly, just enough to acknowledge the second man's presence. This one was…oh, who was he kidding. He didn't know the man's name. Every plan he had ever enacted to benefit mutantkind called for minions, mutants with just enough power to be considered homo superior. Inevitably, they were injured or driven off by the X-men, never to be heard from again, at least not by him. The man smiled ruefully. His feeling that it was easier to not learn his lackeys' names than it was to forget them once they were gone was either a sign of age or of learned cynicism, but he couldn't tell which. Perhaps one was the same as the other, really.
The man was stirred out of his solemn reverie by the realization that his nervous compatriot was still talking. "It's, it's ready, s-sir. Forge th-thinks that, that he worked out the bugs." Any trace of vulnerability that may have graced the man's form before was gone, vanished as if it had never been present, by the time he turned around to face the stuttering speaker, his gaze cold and hard as ice.
"Has he begun?" he asked. The second man swallowed uneasily, as if he were afraid to answer incorrectly. "N-n-no sir, he's w-waiting for you to begin. We put F-f-forge b-back in stasis, like you s-said, sir." The man nodded regally, much to the relief of the speaker.
Twenty minutes later, the man with the cape watched stoically as a short, cloaked man connected wires to his freshly shaved skull. "Forge insists that his modifications will improve the results significantly," he said, securing the final electrode to his temple. He paused, bracing his hands on the table holding the intricate machinery in front of him, steeling himself as though for an earthquake. "Sir," he asked, "Are you sure this is the best way to accomplish your agenda? This won't change any minds, you know." The first man bristled, annoyed at being challenged. "On the contrary, Mastermind. It will change many minds. The only human minds that still matter. You know as well as I do that there are only two mutants capable of such a grand telepathic feat, and both of them live at Xavier's school. I have already put steps in place to weaken the X-men irreparably, a tragic sacrifice, but one that is necessary for my plans to succeed." Mastermind, though seeing the logic in the man's speech, tried again. "But wouldn't it be far easier to abduct the girl? I could complete the task more efficiently, and—"
He was cut off by an icy stare from the first man, eyes growing wide as a large number of iron tools began lengthening and wrapping themselves around him like serpents. "That girl, as you refer to her," the man said, his frosty tone not masking his barely suppressed anger, "is far more powerful than you can ever hope to comprehend. You use machinery, built by another, to amplify your power so that you can reach the building where she lives. She could destroy you with a thought. And if she doesn't frighten you," he stormed at the trembling mutant in front of him, who was fearfully eying the prongs of a crowbar, "consider Xavier. Charles, I believe I am correct in saying, would be—most displeased—if any harm were to come to his favourite pupil." He regarded Mastermind with contempt, then released the tools holding him captive. "Do not question me again," he said, his voice dripping with disgust. "And do not fail me."
Mastermind stood, rooted to the spot as the man swept the cape over his shoulder and strode from the room, his anger evident in each percussive step. Slowly, he turned back to the machine and began adjusting dials, feeling a humming in his mind as the equipment powered up. "Forge was right," he muttered to himself. He cast one final thought toward the man in the cape before turning himself over completely to the device. "I won't fail," he whispered. "I will not fail, Magneto."
Honestly, I cannot remember much about XM:E Mastermind, so I've transplanted him from the comic world. And I think I'm going to stick with Magneto's first name as Erik. Cause 'Magnus' is just a silly name for a villain. See you soon with another (cooler) installment!