XXXXXXXXX

Professor X, Ororo, and Kurt were together in the study as a news broadcast cut to a tape sent to them by a 'mutant terrorist'. Xavier's eyes narrowed as he now stared at the face of his old friend. Magneto began speaking to the nation.

"Today's attack on Rao Laboratories will be the first of many. As long as this cure, this so called 'hope' exists, your cities will not be safe, your streets will not be safe...you will not be safe."

Ororo and Kurt looked at each other as Magneto continued.

"And to my fellow mutants, I will bring you true hope. And I ask for only one thing of those who would oppose…don't get in my way. Enough mutant blood has been spilt already."

The transmission ends abruptly.

"Things are getting worse," Xavier spoke.

"What are we going to do?" Ororo asked.

Xavier sighed heavily.

"We have to wait."

Ororo and Kurt left the study, walking side by side down the hall with students among them.

"In these times, prayer is needed," Kurt spoke up. "I'm heading to a church nearby tonight. Would you like to join me, Miss Storm?"

Ororo smiled.

"That sounds nice, Kurt. Once all the kids are asleep, we'll go."

Kurt smiled. It was a nice smile, once you got past the pointy teeth.

"I'll see you then."

Back at the Worthington building in Manhattan, Warren Senior was on the phone with his housekeeper who took care of things in property he owned in Canada. He was still on a desperate search to find his son. He wasn't at the penthouse in the city, he wasn't at the house they owned in California, and he soon found out that no one at property they owned in Canada had seen him either.

Worthington hung up the phone just as Kavita walked in.

"Any luck?" She asked.

He shook his head as he took a deep breath and wrung his hands.

"My son's gone. Your lab has been destroyed. And what happened at Alcatraz, this whole thing has gotten so far out of hand…everything's happening so quickly." He then looked up at Kavita. "I think I've made a terrible mistake, Kavita."

"This cure is a good thing, Warren," Kavita said, trying to reassure him. "There are mutants out there who need it."

"But it wasn't supposed to be like this."

"You can't blame yourself."

Worthington stood up and went over to the window.

"Change always happens slowly. You'll see. One day we will be remembered as the ones who came up with the solution for this mutant problem."

Worthington slumps, just a little as he placed his hands on the glass.

"I just want my son back."

XXXXXXXXXX

BAMF!

Later that night, Kurt teleported himself and Ororo to a abandoned church he discovered soon after he came to live at the mansion and went there from time to time. When the smoke of his teleportation cleared, the two of them walked towards the church.

"Thank you for accompanying me, Miss Storm," Kurt said.

"It's my pleasure. And you can call me Ororo."

"Yes, Ororo."

They smiled at each other, but as they got closer they could hear voices from inside. And the words 'Mutants Against the Cure' was painted on the outside wall.

"What's going on?" Ororo asked.

"I don't know. This church is always empty when I come."

"Let's go in."

Ororo opened the door and the two of them stepped inside to see a gathering of mutants, at least a hundred in number. Standing on a stage in front of all of them all was Callisto, a woman with a patch over her left eye and wearing a torn army jacket with cargo pants. She tried to silence the din.

"People, listen! This is about getting organized! We have to band together, show the whole world that we mean business!"

A mutant standing in the far right shouts;

"Why should we care about getting organized, Callisto?"

Arclight, a Dominican female mutant who was standing on the stage with Callisto shouts back;

"They want to exterminate us!"

A random mutant sitting in the front row responds;

"This cure is voluntary, Arclight. No one is talking about extermination!"

"No one ever talks about it!" A voice yelled out.

Suddenly, Magneto stood up, dressed in a ratty black sweater and cape. Mystique, Pyro, Sabretooth, and Toad were also with him.

"They just do it," Magneto finished.

Ororo's eyes widened in shock when she saw The Brotherhood and she quickly grabbed a hold of the sleeve of Kurt's jacket, pulling him over to sit on a bench so they would be hidden by the other mutants who were standing. Meanwhile, Magneto walked to the front of the room, taking the stage as the church got silent. He continued on;

"By all means, go about your lives. Ignore all of the many signs around you. Then they'll come for you, and the rest of us will be better off without you. And then you will realize, that while you sat here prattling on about committees and organizations and DMAs, the extermination had already begun."

Magneto stares intensely into the audience as they all watched him in silence.

They wish to cure us…but I say to you that we are the cure. Make no mistake, my brothers, the humans will use this poison against us. And when the air is still, and the night has fallen, there's only one question you must answer. Who will you stand with? Will you stand and fight? Or wait for the inevitable genocide? Choose now and choose wisely. This is the beginning of the end, and your choice will make all the difference."

He strides off as quickly and suddenly as he began. In no time at all, Caliban, an albino-like mutant with no hair or eyebrows was at his and the Brotherhood's heels.

"You talk pretty tough for an old geezer in a cape."

Pyro turned to him and formed a fireball in his hand.

"Back off," he warned.

Caliban stared at his hand for a moment before Pyro extinguished it. By this time, Callisto, Arclight, and Spyke, a black male mutant whose face and upper body was covered by armadillo-type bone plates had walked over to them as well.

"You're so proud of being a mutant, where's your mark?" Callisto asked.

"I've already been marked once, my dear." Magneto pulled up his sleeve to show his serial number from Auschwitz. "Let me assure you, no needle with ever touch my skin again."

"You punks know who you're talking to?" Toad asked.

Spyke's face and arms suddenly spiked up with sharp, protruding bones.

"Do you?"

Toad smirked in his face, unimpressed.

"Relax, Spyke," Callisto ordered, not wanting a confrontation between the two groups.

Ororo and Kurt continued watching the exchange with the rest of the mutants who hadn't moved. She then whispered to Kurt;

"We have to do something."

Ororo began to get up but Kurt stopped her and shook his head.

"Not in the house of god."

Meanwhile the conversation between Magneto and Callisto continued.

"You know who I am?" Magneto inquired.

"Of course. I defy any mutant in here that doesn't," Callisto responded.

"And who might you all be?"

"We call ourselves 'Morlocks'."

Magneto cocked his head.

"You named yourselves after the subterranean creatures from The Time Machine novel?"

"That's right. We're outcasts. A lot of us can't pass for human so we stay underground. There are tunnels beneath New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, built by the government in the 1950's as shelters in case of a national emergency," Callisto informed him. "Most of the public don't even know these tunnels exist. Caliban here helps me find mutants who rebel against society."

Magneto looked to Caliban.

"And how do you do that?"

"It's my power," Caliban explained. "I know that you control metal..."

He then looked to Mystique, Pyro, and Toad.

"And that you're a shape-shifter, you control fire, and you have all the enhanced abilities of a toad."

Magneto responds, politely bored.

"So you have talents."

He began to turn away but Caliban continued.

"That and more. I can tell you how many mutants are on this block. In this city." He smiled as he saw that Magneto was becoming more intrigued. "This state."

"You can sense other mutants and their powers?"

Caliban nodded.

"Could you locate one for me?" Magneto asked.

Ororo finally grabbed a hold of Kurt.

"Get us out of here."

BAMF!

The others mutants who were around them looked to see the blue puff of smoke slowly dissipate. Magneto too heard the noise but didn't see anything.

XXXXXXXXX

Once Kurt got them back to the mansion, Ororo quickly found the Professor and was currently telling Xavier and Logan what she had seen involving Magneto and the mutants from the church.

"Apparently this guy can locate any other mutant on the planet," Ororo explained. "Like a living Cerebro."

"I wonder who Magneto wanted located," Logan spoke.

"Maybe I can help you with that."

They all turned their heads when they heard the voice and saw Hank step into the room. Logan raised an eyebrow.

"Still a mutant, I see."

"Yes."

Logan was happy about that. Hank had a file in hand that he put on the desk. Opening it up, he turned a few pages until he reached a picture of a young green-skinned mutant child.

"Do any of you know this young man?"

After glancing at the photo, Xavier and Ororo looked at each other.

"That's Jimmy," Ororo stated.

"Who?"

"James Hawking," Xavier clarified. "He was a student here up until a few months ago when his father pulled him out for unknown reasons."

"Well, this young mutant's DNA is the source of the cure. I have a feeling he is the one Magneto is after."

"What's Magneto gonna do with him?" Logan asked.

"I'm not sure…kill him maybe," Hank speculated. "He's being kept at the Worthington building here in New York. And he and everyone else working there is in mortal danger if Magneto does decide to attack that building."

"Then we have to rescue him," Xavier stated.

Logan shook his head.

"Wait a minute. Should we really do that?"

They all looked at Logan as he continued;

"Should we really stop Magneto from destroying the cure? Isn't that what we want too?"

"If you recall, I was never happy about a cure for mutation being released," Ororo said while shaking her head. "But we can't let Magneto continue to kill innocent people, especially a child."

Hank nodded.

"The President has given me a job on his cabinet. He's offered an olive branch to the mutant community. All of the destruction Magneto has caused could undo that."

"Yes," Xavier agreed. "If we stand by and do nothing, than the war that Erik has been trying to start may become a reality."

"So we have to get to the Worthington building before Magneto does," Logan stated.

As Logan said that, a figure appears from behind the doorway. It was Warren and he had overheard what they had discussed.

"I have to go with you guys!"

Warren ran into the room and all the adults turned to him.

"How much of that do you hear?" Ororo asked.

"Enough. My dad is going to be at the center of whatever Magneto has in store. I can't let him hurt my dad."

"Kid, you have no idea what you're in for out there, and you aren't trained. We can't risk it," Logan said.

Ororo nodded.

"For once I agree with Logan. We cannot risk having you come with us. It's too dangerous."

"As long as I have my wings, I'll be fine."

Hank looked at Warren and saw the determination in his eyes. He then looked back at the others.

"I don't think the lad's going to budge." He turned back to Warren. "Am I right?"

"Listen, I can go with you guys, or go myself. If you haven't noticed, I can fly myself over there you know. My dad might not have done the most responsible thing but he's still my dad, and I'm not just going to sit here and let something happen to him."

Logan, Xavier, Ororo, and Hank all looked at each other for a moment. Finally, Ororo spoke.

"Hank, get Warren a suit. He'll need one."

Warren smiled as Hank led him out of the office. Ororo then turned to Logan.

"Logan, get the others down here."

The team headed down to the sub-complex of the mansion. Wolverine and Beast were in the dressing room, changing into their uniforms. Beast pulled on his old X-Men jacket snugly.

"I can't believe this used to fit me."

Wolverine chuckled as they walked out into the hall, meeting up with Storm, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Colossus, and Warren. He then looked around and noticed that someone was missing.

"As anyone seen Rogue?"

They all shook their heads, Iceman's eyes lowered to the ground. Wolverine frowned as Colossus looked towards Warren.

"We all have code-names," the metal mutant stated. "What do we call you when we're out there?"

Warren smiled and looked to Nightcrawler.

"Archangel."

Wolverine cocked his head.

"Well, I've heard worse." Wolverine then glanced over at Iceman who gave him a look of incredulance in response.

Storm then addressed the team.

"All right, everyone, listen up. You're not all the most experienced, and I'm giving you this chance to back out now. This isn't going to be like the Danger Room, we might not all make it back. Can you handle that?"

"We're not kids anymore, Iceman stated. "We know what's at stake here."

Colossus nodded.

"We're ready."

A voice then said;

"So am I."

They all looked over when they heard that and Rogue came around the corner, having a uniform on just like they all did. Wolverine smiled when he saw her as did Iceman.

"All right. We're in this together. X-Men, all of us."

They all nodded in agreement.

"Let's move out," Wolverine finished, leading them into the hangar and they all walked up the ramp and onto the jet. Taking their seats, Rogue and Iceman looked at each other, both clearly scared out of their minds.

Storm took the pilot's seat, Beast next to her.

"Everyone ready?" Beast asked while putting his seatbelt on.

"As we'll ever be," Rogue said.

Beast started up the jet.

"Alright. Let's see if this thing is as fast as I remember."