The intercom buzzed. Warren Worthington II looked up from the monitor. He reached over and touched a button on his desk.
"Yes, Ms. Carr?" he said.
"Your son is here to see you, Mr Worthington"
Mr Worthington paused. This was unexpected. His son was supposed to be on vacation in the Canadian Rockies. He had seen him onto the aeroplane not three days ago. Mr Worthington wondered what could have prompted the unexpected and unannounced return.
"Send him in, Ms. Carr" he ordered and let go of the button.
The door at the far end of the office opened as Warren Worthington III stepped inside. He walked with the stooped, round-shouldered gait that his harness necessitated. Mr Worthington felt a twinge of guilt as he was reminded how he had tried to rid his son of that harness forever. The wounds from that misadventure had not completely healed, but at least Mr Worthington could now look his son in the eye.
As Warren drew level with the desk, Mr Worthington noticed a strange quality in his face. It had a hard, focused look that was unusual to the young man's handsome features.
"Son, is something wrong?" asked Mr Worthington, rising from his chair.
Warren didn't reply. He stopped opposite Mr Worthington and reached inside his coat.
"Son… what's wrong?"
Warren drew a silenced pistol from inside his coat. He shot Mr Worthington twice in the chest, then tossed the gun onto the desk. Mr Worthington, too shocked to cry out, fell back into his chair.
As he slowly descended into unconsciousness, Mr Worthington saw Warren change. His son's face, hair, even his clothes, seemed to fall from him like shed skin. Now a young woman stood before him. She was at once alluring and repulsive: her shapely figure covered in blue scales. She looked down at Mr Worthington with contempt in her yellow cat's eyes.
"You took everything I had" she spat.
Mr Worthington tried to speak, but found words too painful. The woman turned and Warren Worthington III left the office. That was the last thing Mr Worthington ever saw.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Logan struck a match on the sole of his boot. He cast a knowing eye over the rubble.
"Looks like a bomb went off," he said as he lit his cigar.
"I fear it was something far more dangerous," said Dr McCoy, who was adjusting his suit.
The damage to the prison was extensive. A fifty-foot stretch of chain-link fence had been shattered. Two machinegun towers had been toppled. Large sections of the prison wall were missing, revealing the inner-belly of the building. The ground was littered with lumps of steel and concrete.
"Looks like the welcoming committee" Logan said, nodding towards a group of figures approaching their car. Logan had wanted to take the jet, but Dr McCoy had felt that a Rolls would give a better impression.
There were five men: a suit and four policemen in body armour. They were carrying rifles. Dr McCoy stepped forward and greeted them with his most diplomatic smile
"Gentlemen," he began, but was cut off by the man in the suit.
"Dr McCoy?" he asked briskly. He was grey and unimposing, except for his eyes, which although obviously tired, were as sharp as razors.
"Yes?"
"Agent Cooper, CTD. I'm afraid I need to see some ID, sir" the suit demanded, holding out his hand.
"ID? Furballs in suits must be pretty common round here (!)" Logan commented.
It was only after Dr McCoy had produced his official government papers and identification card that Agent Cooper would speak to them.
"My apologies, Dr McCoy" he said, "but we are on maximum security alert. If you would please follow me?"
Logan tried to follow Dr McCoy and Cooper, but found his way blocked by one of the policemen.
"You wanna get out of my face?" he demanded, squaring up to the cop.
"ID" the policeman demanded.
"I don't have any," said Logan. He tried to brush past the policeman, but was again blocked.
"He's with me," said Dr McCoy quickly.
"We still need ID," Cooper said.
Logan scowled and raised his left hand. Three adamantine claws shot up out of the back of his hand.
"Ah, you must be 'Wolverine'," said Cooper with a small smile "I think that's all the ID we require"
The two X Men followed Cooper into the main building to a room on the third floor. It was filled with complex computer equipment and sleep-starved men in their short sleeves. It stank of coffee.
"At 1:30am yesterday morning, there was a mass breakout from this prison" Agent Cooper began. As he talked produced a remote control device from his jacket pocket.
"As you have already seen, the damage to this institute was extensive. Ten guards were killed outright, while a further seven were injured, some permanently."
"Your phone call said that the breakout was the work of the Brotherhood of Mutants" Dr McCoy interrupted "On what do you base this claim?"
"Thankfully, the security cameras were not damaged in the attack" Cooper explained. He pushed a button on the remote control and one of the larger screens sprang to life. It showed a monochrome picture of the prison wall and security fence.
"This was a ten-foot high electric fence" Cooper told them "It was topped with barbed wire and had towers at fifty foot intervals"
"Was?" said Logan.
"Was" nodded Cooper. He pushed another button on the remote. The video jumped forward. After a few seconds a man appeared out of the shadows on the far side of the fence. He wore a long coat, a balaclava and a pair of bulky metal gloves. He stepped forward and placed both hands against the security fence. There was a brilliant flash of light and the screen went white. When it cleared, about thirty seconds later, nothing appeared to have changed.
Cooper paused the video.
"That, gentlemen, was how they disabled the electric fence" he explained.
"What?" said Logan.
"We are not sure, but we believe the man on the video to be Herman Schultz, a mutant who goes by the name…"
"Shocker" Dr McCoy finished for Agent Cooper
"Yes, Mr Cooper, I am familiar with the details of this particular gentleman" Dr McCoy explained "As Secretary for Mutant Affairs, I waged a long and arduous campaign to recruit Mr Schultz. He is an unusually gifted engineer. But, alas, it appears he prefers a life of crime to honest work."
"You are aware of the nature of his mutation?" Cooper prompted.
"Yes. As I recall, he has the ability to absorb electrical energy? To practically any strength or quantity?"
"That's correct" Cooper pushed another button on the remote and the screen beside the first activated. It displayed the criminal record of Herman Schultz. The photograph showed a thickset, ill-shaven face of a mean disposition.
"But how did he disable the electric fence, Mr Cooper?" asked Dr McCoy "He only has the power to absorb the electricity, am I correct?"
"That's what we thought too. But we believe we have the answer"
Using the remote, Cooper rewound the security tape to the moment just before the flash of the light. Zooming in on Shocker's hands, the X Men could see that the gauntlets were crackling with electrical energy.
"We believe that these gauntlets allow Shocker to re-channel the absorbed energy in the form of electrical shocks" Cooper explained.
"So he absorbed the electricity from the fence and then used it to short out the generators," Logan concluded
"Why did it not deactivate the security cameras?" Dr McCoy asked.
"The cameras are on a separate generator to the fences" Cooper answered, fast-forwarding the tape back to after the flash. Shocker did not hesitate, but vanished into the shadows beyond the fence. A few minutes passed, when two fireballs came flying out of the darkness. They struck the security towers, which burst into flame like giant candles. Logan watched as the guards leapt from the towers, some of them burning badly. Another pair of fireballs toppled the towers, while a third smashed open the breach in the chain link fence. Something moving so fast that the cameras only caught it as a blur rushed through the hole in the fence and headed straight for the main prison building. The camera shook and the view was obscured by a great cloud of dust.
"What was that?" asked Dr McCoy.
"That," said Cooper as he rewound the video "was a man pushing through ten feet of reinforced concrete…with his head."
The video slowed down to one frame at a time. The blur was revealed to be a huge man wearing a domed helmet, sprinting headlong towards the main building.
"Juggernaut" spat Logan.
"Quite" said Agent Cooper "This is our first sighting of him since the Alcatraz incident. And this is another first…"
He wound the video forward to a point after the dust had settled. A figure was standing in the breach. It was wearing a set of robes, with a cowl drawn low over its face.
"Now I do not recognise him" said Dr McCoy thoughtfully, putting on his glasses and peering closely at the screen.
"We are not certain," said Cooper "but we believe this to be once John Allerdyce, alias Pyro"
The video flashed forward by ten minutes. A squad of half a dozen armed policeman could be seen approaching the robed figure. The figure raised its right hand, from which it hurled a blast of fire that engulfed the guards.
"Sure is John's style" agreed Logan "But what's with the dressing gown?"
"We have no idea" shrugged Cooper, who did not seemed pleased to have to admit to a gap in his knowledge.
"And what of Mystique?" asked Dr McCoy "If the so-called cure is indeed wearing off, there is reason to presume that she has regained her mutant powers and returned to the Brotherhood."
"She does not appear on the tape" Agent Cooper replied "And neither does Magneto. Their whereabouts remain unknown to us."
"Couldn't she have been working inside the prison?" suggested Logan.
"Juggernaut's actions when he broke in suggest otherwise" replied Cooper "He conducted a seemingly random search of the cells until he found the maximum security wing and the prisoners the Brotherhood sought. If Mystique was working in the prison, we believe the breakout would have been faster and more precise than it in fact was."
"So they were looking for specific prisoners?" said Dr McCoy.
"Yes. Many normal prisoners were released. Most have been recaptured. But none left in the company of the Brotherhood. They seemed particularly interested in three mutants."
The second screen changed to show the record of an enormously fat man with a crew cut.
"Ahh, old friend. We meet again," Dr McCoy said softly.
"Huh? You know this guy?" asked Logan.
"Before your time, my young friend" smiled Dr McCoy "I helped to apprehend this gentleman on one of the X Men's very first missions. But that was many years ago. You were probably still in high school…"
"Watch it" Logan warned him.
"Frederick J. Dukes" read Agent Cooper "or 'The Blob'. He is impervious to almost all external forces, possesses super-human strength and can control his own personal gravity field to make him virtually immovable."
"Nice guy" said Logan sardonically.
The screen changed again. This time it showed a square-jawed man with dark hair and a cocky expression.
"Apprehended in the forests of the Appalachian Mountains just over a month ago" Cooper said.
"His name is James Madrox, alias 'Multiple Man'" he continued "Can produce unlimited duplicates of himself."
"And the third?" prompted Dr McCoy.
"The third is Arthur Centino"
The screen changed to show a handsome young man with blonde hair. Two more photographs were displayed beneath the first. They showed a pair of hands, each with only three fingers.
"What's this?" asked Logan, pointing to the photographs with his cigar.
"Those are his hands," explained Cooper "They're part of his mutation."
"Seems pretty harmless to me"
"That's not all. He is in fact a class four mutant with the ability to alter probability to give himself unnatural good luck. Hence his alias: Longshot. Mercifully, his powers only extend to his own actions and immediate area."
"Any idea where they've gone?" asked Logan.
"They left the complex at 2:15 am, heading roughly east. They have not been seen since."
Dr McCoy stood for a moment in silent thought.
"Tell me, Agent Cooper," he said at length "why were these mutant prisoners being held together in a state prison? Surely this was inviting just such a breakout? What of the mobile prisons that Secretary Trask devised?"
Agent Cooper frowned and crossed his arms. When he answered, it was in slow and carefully measured words.
"I must confess, Dr McCoy, that I do not know. Two weeks ago, orders arrived from the most senior offices to have all mutant criminals transferred south. I was assigned here, to Florida State, but I believe similar transfers were made to prisons in Louisiana and Mississippi too."
"Why to the south?" asked Dr McCoy
"Again, I do not know. I do not have the authority or the security clearance to obtain that kind of information."
"But I do" said Dr McCoy.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The acrid stench of the cheap beer, cheap cologne and all round cheapness cut through the smoke-laden atmosphere of the diner. Deep in a shadowed alcove, Rogue sat with a cold cup of what was allegedly coffee and considered her immediate future.
She couldn't go back to the mansion. Not yet. It was too soon. And she couldn't deny it: she was scared. Scared of what she would find.
Where could she go? Too scared to return. Too scared to run. No job. No money. No roof. No friends. What could she do?
"This seat taken?"
A gruff voice cut through Rogue's introspection. A burly trucker was leaning over her.
Rogue blinked. "Ahm sorry, what?"
"This seat taken?" the trucker repeated irritably.
"No, no. Take it" she said, waving to the trucker to take the chair. She didn't exactly want company right now.
To Rogue's consternation, instead of taking the chair away, the burly man simply dropped into the wooden seat, causing the legs to creak ominously. A moment later, the plump waitress whom had served Rogue waddled over to the table to take the trucker's order.
"The usual, Bart?"
"Please, Alice"
"Hey, have you seen 'Speedy' lately?" the waitress asked.
"Nah. Shouldn't he be in here?" the trucker replied.
"Speedy?" asked Rogue, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Oh, we just mean ol' Pete Maximoff" the waitress explained "We call him 'Speedy Gonzalez' 'cause he's always the first in here for lunch."
"Works on the other side o' the city, yet he's always able to get over here for twelve noon. On the dot. Never could figure out how…" mused the trucker.
"Well, he ain't been in for over a week now," said the waitress, a little nervously.
"Ahh, he's probably upped and left" said the trucker.
"Well, he ain't the only one neither. My sister, Liz, a friend of hers just vanished."
"Vanished?"
"Yeah. She went into her apartment and when Liz called on her in the mornin', she weren't there"
"So? She probably got picked up by some fella and went back to his place."
"If y' ask me," said the waitress, ignoring the trucker's crude joke "it's got something to do with them muties in the sewers."
"Ahh, come on!" scoffed the trucker "Ya don't believe all that crap, do you?"
"Well it said in the Bugle that there's dozens of 'em down there. Comin' out at night and robbin' trashcans like damned racoons. Suppose they start robbin' people?"
"Ahh, you worry too much. Probably nothing more than a coupla bums with bad eczema!"
The waitress turned and left in a huff.
"Muties in the sewer, I ask ya…" the trucker shook his head, before turning to the girl sitting next to him.
"So, what's a nice girl like you doin' in a place…"
But Rogue had gone.