Chapter Three: Smoke and Mirrors.
Chronus H.Q.
Arizona, United States
Dr. Yatate studied his clipboard intently. So intently, infact that he didn't hear his associate walk in to his office.
"Commander Guyot wants to see you Doctor."
Dr. Yatate looked up in surprise but quickly recovered with a sheepish smile.
"I'll be right there."
As he made his way toward the Commander's office, Yatate's mind was busy trying to decide what would prompt such a meeting. His usually cheerful manner faded as he thought about what Guyot might know, but he quickly reestablished the happy mask once more before anybody noticed. Besides, he thought to himself, he wants to see me in his office. If he suspected anything he would of brought in guards to fetch me, not a lab aide. Mentally shrugging, he shifted the discomfort with the situation into the back of his mind as he knocked on the Commanders door. It was time to concentrate.
"C-C-Commander? You wanted to see me?" Dr. Yatate stuttered nervously.
Guyot looked up from his massive desk and grinned infectiously. Rising from his chair he held out his hand for the doctor to shake. Yatate made a mental note of Guyot's physical stature while giving the offered hand a tentative shake.
"Ah, Dr. Yatate. Yes you're just the one I wanted to see. Please have a seat." Commander Guyot gestured toward an empty chair as he sat himself.
"I was going over all of the files for the projects here at the Arizona base, and had a few simple questions regarding the progress of your experiments."
At this Dr. Yatate mentally relaxed in relief. He had practically memorized all of the notes of his projects. Giving a snap report should be no problem.
"Yes, Commander. What would you like to know?" he asked meekly.
Abruptly all kindness vanished from Guyot's hostile face. His smile was replaced by a snarl, and he leaned forward in his chair. Even though he was sitting he was still quite intimidating.
"I demand to know why all of your reports have turned from remarkable discoveries to redundant reminders of what you already filed. On why you have made no progress in the last two weeks, and where is my scientist, imposter!?"
Dr. Yatate sat stunned at that last accusation and briefly wondered if he should deny it. A quick look at the thundercloud in Guyot's face killed all excuses. His cover was exposed. A defiant smirk crept up onto the doctors' features as he gazed back at Guyot.
"I am impressed with your ability to infiltrate us as long as you did. But did you really think that you could actually get away with it? We are Chronus. We are the most secure force in the world." Guyot narrowed his eyes to slits. "And you will become forgotten. As soon as you tell me everything you know."
He reached for the intercom connected into his desk but was stopped by the doctor's manic laughter. He looked up quizzically, that voice didn't match the doctor.
"Are you sure it will be I that will be come forgotten?" The doctor laughed again. This time the voice was definitely a woman's. The doctor's visage melted away and became a slender young woman with blue skin and red hair. Mystique grinned evilly at the Chronus Commander. "Or will it be you?" With that her body began to change again, this time growing significantly larger until she became a perfect replica of the man before her. Mystique opened her eyes expecting to see the fear and confusion she was accustomed to. But instead she saw wry amusement.
"Oh, I see now. You're a mutant. Now I don't feel so angry at having my base infiltrated. I suppose I should thank you. I was having some trouble trying to locate one so quickly. You will make my doctors very happy."
Mystique growled as she stood up. "Like hell I will." And her body began to morph once more. Guyot stepped back patiently waiting to see her newest trick. Her size and bulk grew even more as dark brown fur began to sprout from under fading blue skin all over her body. Her mouth and nose elongated into a snout with very sharp teeth and her hands became paws with long wicked claws.
"Ah, a Grizzly. Good choice." Guyot applauded.
Mystique just roared and charged him, lashing out with one paw then the next. Guyot effortless sidestepped each attack. She stood up on her hind legs and let out another roar, then struck with both sets of claws in a massive strike. This time Guyot stepped forward, catching each of the bear's arms easily and held them in place. "But a grizzly is no match for a Zoalord, much less of all me." He hissed before slamming her bodily into the floor behind him. Pressing his advantage he snaked one hand around her windpipe and squeezed until he could hear her struggle to catch a breath. After a few feeble pats from her paws, which had a serious lack of strength, she finally reverted back into her normal and barely conscious form.
"My doctors will love you indeed." Guyot grinned. He walked to his desk and activated his intercom. "Dr. Yamaguchi? I have a new patient for you. Come up here and get it will you?"
-- -- --
Dr. Yamaguchi stared up at the lifeless form floating in the tank before him. She had already tried to escape three times since she was imprisoned here. He eventually had to heavily sedate her so he could get any work done. Two hours later he had learned so much more than he had anticipated and Commander Guyot was coming down here to check on his findings. He was going to be so pleased, Dr. Yamaguchi grinned in self-pleasure. The door to enter the lab slid open behind the doctor. Commander Guyot briskly walked in and surveyed the tanks occupant.
"Doctor, is my new puppet ready?" he asked pleasantly.
Yamaguchi suddenly got unsure of himself. "Lord Guyot, we did inject her with the proper gene, but the reactions have not been satisfactory as of yet."
Guyot frowned, his displeasure clearly evident on his face.
"But look at what we did learn," Yamaguchi gestured toward a monitor, hoping to redeem himself. "Her mutant physiology allows her to imitate any living creature down to its basic physical ability."
"Yes, doctor I know. I witnessed such ability first hand. But can I control her or not?" he asked tersely.
Dr. Yamaguchi took a deep breath. "My lord, we've done all that we could. All that is left is for you to attempt it. Personally I'd say all she could do is hear you but that's it."
Guyot stared down at his scientist for a while then turned toward the tank. He's eyes began to glow as he stared at the woman inside. For sometime Yamaguchi watched while nothing happened but then the mutant began to squirm. Then trash. Then scream in pain while clutching her skull.
"Congratulations, doctor. Your work is a success." Guyot grinned. "Now then Mystique, tell me all that you know."
Half an hour later Guyot turned toward Yamaguchi. "I'm sorry to say doctor, but it looks like I won't be able to mass control all the mutants. Apparently I, nor any of the other Zoalords, could control them." Guyot crossed his arms in concentration.
"It seems I need to change my plans." He muttered to himself. If I can't use them then I'll have to destroy them, especially if they take up arms with the Guyvers, Guyot thought quickly on how best to accomplish this goal. His face brightened up considerably, it might take me a few days, but I can gather enough Zoanoids and Hyper-Zoanoids to completely remove them from the picture. And if luck holds out, I will finally have my Unit.
"Dr. Yamaguchi, I believe that this mutant can carry one final message for me." The grin on Commander Guyot's face dripped with pure unbridled evil.
-- -- --
Everyone in the War Room turned toward Bishop with surprise all over his or her faces. Except of course for the humans.
"Bishop! How great it is to see you!" Xavier's welcome was warm and sincere, as were most of the X-Men. Wolverine just scoffed and looked away.
"Professor, Jean, Summers, it's nice to see you too." Bishop returned. "And everybody else." He said looking around. "Just wish it was under better reasons."
"Jeez, Bishop! You look like you seen better days!" Jubilee exclaimed.
Bishops attire was indeed in bad shape. His clothes was burned in numerous places and he looked like he hadn't bathed in months, with all the ash and dirt in his hair and on his skin. A very nasty gun was gripped in each hand, Bishop not even bothering to holster them.
Bishop ignored her. "Professor, I've come to warn you, all of you. The X-Mansion is going to be attacked by a very powerful enemy." His eyes burned with anger as he spoke.
Xavier just nodded. "Chronus we know. The attack is in eight and a half hours."
"What? It's suppose to happen in three days! What happened?! How did you know about it? The mansion was taken by surprise!" Bishop was confused, and it was making him angry.
"Bishop calm down," Xavier said, trying to sooth him. "As for the attack, Magneto has forewarned us, and for Chronus in general these young people told us." He gestured toward the humans.
Bishop looked at them blankly then sat down heavily. "What went wrong?" he muttered to himself, rubbing his temple with the barrel of a pistol. "Chronus hasn't attacked yet, everybody here knows of them, Lehnsherr too. Why haven't they attacked?" He looked around. "Has there been any reports on X-Day?"
Agito's and Murikami's heads snapped up at the mention of X-Day. "X-Day isn't scheduled for another five years." Murikami said slowly.
Bishop stared at him for a moment before standing. "Ya' know, you look pretty familiar."
"Probably because Mr. Murikami isn't wearing his sunglasses," Natsuki laughed. "He usually wears them at all times, even at night." Masaki Murikami just smiled.
Bishop paused mid-step, and slowly turned around. As he did, he quickly brought up a pistol aligning the sights right over Murikami's left eye.
"Mirabilis," he growled.
"Who?" Cyclops rose to his feet.
"He is a general of Chronus. The 13th Zoalord. Imakarum Mirabilis."
"But he's not Mirabilis, he's Masaki Murikami." Sho responded defensively. "He isn't a full Zoalord and Chronus has it out for him. Especially Guyot."
Bishops gun never wavered as he glanced toward Sho. "Who's Guyot?"
"Commander Richard Guyot. The last Zoalord to be created, the Zoalord who I was handpicked to be a guinea pig for. There is no way I would ever join them." Murikami answered through clinched teeth.
"Bishop, they mean us no harm, trust me." Xavier said.
With a 'hrmpf' Bishop lowered his pistol. "I'm watchin' you." With that he turned back to the rest of the group.
"Apparently X-Day has been moved back a few years. Something has changed in the history in this time line to set it back that far. That would be good news but it appears you gained their notice. So now they attack in a few hours. The grand total of it all is that you are now in worse shape than I thought, and I don't think there's a thing I can do to help."
Jean leaned forward across the table. "Bishop, what happened?"
He was silent for a moment, simply staring at the table's polished surface before looking up at Jean.
"For us, the world, that day was like every other day. You get up, eat, get dressed, and do whatever you do. For the mutants at the mansion, the day was normal. Everybody was minding their own business when the reports started coming in. Someone was attacking the major governments. Forge and Beast patched in to some of our countries satellites to see what was going on. What they saw they couldn't explain. Huge monsters were ripping up the military. Not just our army but the whole world's. They were just walking through them like they weren't there, not to mention these monsters had everybody outnumbered. In one day, the entire planet fell to these creatures, the entire planet was now in the hands of Chronus."
Bishop took a slow deep breath and looked around the room. Everybody had their eyes on him, even the humans. Even Wolverine was listening without a sarcastic look. No one said a thing as he collected his thoughts, as he found the proper words for the next bit of disturbing memories.
"All surviving mutants who wasn't captured out right either went to Magneto's or came
here. These were the two strongest safe houses. For a whole week. On that final day,
we thought we were ready, that we had all we needed to survive, to defend ourselves.
Oh, were we wrong. You see, Chronus does their homework too. Once they found out
the existence of mutants, they waited long enough to determine our strengths, before
sending out Zoanoids strong enough to fight us. It only took them three days! Three
days and they knew everything there is to know about us!"
Bishops hands started to tremble and his voice rose in pitch as he told the others of the fate that awaited them. The two guns in his hands were soon shaking as he fought to remain calm.
"They knew more than we did. When they came it did look like we could hold our own against them. Then the Hypers came. Those Zoanoids were strong; mutants began dying faster than the Zoanoids were. But we still kept fighting. The mansion grounds were nothing but a ruined battlefield. Scott, Jean, and most of the other X-Men fought to the death. They kept Beast and Forge alive and turned them into scientist slaves. As for Wolverine, he wouldn't go easily but they finally convinced him. Ended up as a pet project for all of the Chronus Scientists before he finally died two months later." Bishop scoffed and glanced at Logan. "Lab accident, is what they called it. But Wolverine got too much for the Chronus people to handle, couldn't control him the way they could some mutants. So they arranged a little 'accident'. And boom, problem gone."
"Any mutant they didn't kill outright they stuffed in a concentration camp. Something like a waiting pen for future testing. And all mutants there was branded with the Character 'M' over their left eye." He gestured with his pistol at his eye and the M that was tattooed there. "Meiwaku. Annoying and troublesome. They gave us these so they would know which prisoner was a troublemaker. Which prisoner resisted their sovereign reign. After three months of that, everybody was ready to be a problem for Chronus. So we revolted and actually escaped. We went into underground and used what we know of Chronus to avoid detection. It wasn't easy. There were several close calls, and even then good friends had to give their lives so the rest of us could get away. But we found a good place to start a base of operations." Bishop was barely a whisper now, his eyes in a far way place.
-- -- --
"Forge are you sure about this?" Bishop asked warily.
"Bishop I know it's a long shot but it's the best chance we got. If we could give our counter parts in the past the information we have now, the X-mansion might not fall."
"But won't Chronus find us if we use that much power?" he persisted.
Forge sighed and nodded. "Yes. If we do activate this time machine, then Chronus will detect it, which will inevitably lead them right to our doorstep. But if we do activate it and send at least one person back to change the past, Chronus will never become this powerful and the others will still be alive. Even your sister."
Bishop lowered his head as he fought for control over his feelings. It's been barely ten hours since she died to throw Chronus off their trail, and he still hadn't come to terms with that yet.
"Fine. Just get it ready. Who's gonna go through?"
"As many as we can get through. The others will need all the help they can get if we want Chronus to fail. Go and tell the others to get some rest. They'll need it when we go back in time. All I need is a few hours."
Bishop just grunted and walked off, his thoughts on his sister. He didn't even see Dazzler as she ran into him.
"Dazzler? What's the rush?" He picked himself off the floor and started to help her up.
"Bishop!! They're here!" She cried. Her eyes wide with terror. "Chronus found us!"
Bishop froze the instant he heard. Then his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared.
"Perfect. Just perfect. We do not need this right now!" He turned to run back the way he came. "Dazzler get everybody and get them out here Now!! We got to hold them off for a couple of hours so Forge can finish that machine!"
Dazzler nodded as she ran off looking for other mutants. Bishop burst through the doors that led into Forges work area. Forge was working franticly over a table, sparks flying as he assembled the parts he needed.
"I know Bishop the perimeter cameras picked them up. Its not finished yet."
Bishop nodded as he grabbed a gun from a nearby shelf. "How long?" he asked as he checked the ammo in the clip.
Forge shook his head as he frowned in thought. "I'm going to cut some corners. Only one person can go back and I'm not even sure if it'll take them all the way back or not. But that's the best I can do on such short time."
"Right, just keep working on it. I'm going out to help them fight."
Bishop rounded a corner just in time to see three Gregores charge a lone figure. The man simply stood there and braced himself as they charged. The first one to make contact nearly knocked him off his feet, the second Gregore's attack spun him around but the third attacking Gregore just made the hair on top of the mans bald head sway in the gust of wind. Each Gregore blinked at the lack of damage on the man but he just laughed and grabbed the nearest one by their horn and used the Gregore like a club, swinging him around like a rag doll as he tried to slam the massive bulk of the Zoanoid into his two comrades. Bishop slowed a bit and analyzed the situation, then continued on convinced that Strong Guy had everything under control. Besides Siryn just came in the room too, so this was a secured area now. Bishop ran to the next adjoining room, which was their armory, and took in the scene. There were a bunch of Zoanoids poring through a giant hole in the wall and a gigantic puddle at their feet. Across the room was Random, each of his arms ending in multiple massive barrels firing continuous bursts into the massing hoards of genetic nightmares. Right beside him was an unusual sight, even for him. A young man was firing a customized automatic rifle on full auto, never letting up as he pointed the white-hot barrel at the Zoanoids. The really odd thing was that right beside him, the same young man was throwing special Anti-Zoanoid grenades into the hole making the walls shake with each detonation. And right beside him, was another identical man, this time using two sub-machine guns. And beside him was two more clones using a rocket launcher. Bishop just shook his head and left that room, he didn't want to be around that many Multiple Men. Down the next hall led to a large domed room. Filled to the brim with Ramotithes and Broiz. A large portion of the enemy was centered in the middle of the room all looking at the center of their midst while a good number of Gobliva's and Breznels were advancing toward Rictor and Dazzler, who were pinned down. No eyes were one Bishop and he made use of the lack of awareness. He charged in the room running straight for Dazzler using his firearm to blast anything in-between them forcing the Zoanoids to turn around which gave the other two a chance to regroup and press that advantage. Rictor shot his hands out and caused several Gobliva's to shatter from the intense vibrations. Bishop was focused on a Breznel, his gun doing little to no damage to Breznel's tough hide. Dazzler focused an intense beam of light, directed it at Breznel's back, and increased it lights intensity. In the time it took her to look at the Zoanoid, the bright beam pierced it and several others who were its path. Bishop got in position between Rictor and Dazzler and fired off several more rounds, killing a Gobliva with each shot. "What's going on over there?" he indicated to the middle of the room.
"They got ShatterShot surrounded. Bishop, I think he's fighting some hypers in there." Rictor responded.
Bishop cursed under his breath. "Not much we can do right now, things are too close over here as it is." He had to back pedal a bit as a Breznel charged his position. "Rictor get rid of this Breznel!"
"On it!"
"Dazzler, can you fire a wide spread beam really hot?"
"No! But I can do this!"
Dazzler brought both hands together and out sprang thousands of tiny shards of painfully white light, shredding apart anything in its path. She swept their side of the room with the light shards, fighting the strain needed to keep firing that many needle sized light at a very high intensity. When she was done she was exhausted, but half the room was nothing but one wet floor.
"Rictor watch over her, I'm going to see if …"
A battle cry interrupted whatever Bishop was going to say next, as Shatterstar leapt from the center of the room and sent two long strands of energy from his sword into the crowd of Zoanoids below him. Bishop didn't hesitate as he charged the group and opened fire into the gaps that Shatterstar's attack had opened up. Shatterstar landed beside him and charged into the group again, both swords a blur as he clashed with a Broiz. To the left of Bishop, Zoanoids were simply exploding with the occasional laser beam, to the right of Bishop, they were being cut to ribbons, and directly in front of Bishop, well, any Zoanoids in front of Bishop was being turned into pulp due to his gun. Then a Zerebubuth broke out of the group of Zoanoids and attacked Shatterstar. Shatterstar saw him coming and fired off a single concentrated beam of bio energy from his sword, but the energy never connected with Zerebubuth, instead it just dissipated in front of him.
Bishop cursed. "Shatter, it's got some type of energy barrier, see if you can get up close with it."
Shatterstar nodded and leapt into the air, intending to slam both swords into its massive shoulders, and slice off the arms, but he never got that far. With a single smooth motion, Zerebubuth brought up his clawed hand and his claws glowed and extended, bludgeoning Shatterstar in the abdomen. Bishop turned away in anger still firing into another Zoanoid. Shatterstar fell to the ground at Zerebubuth's feet. Motionless. Dazzler was back up and she was sending laser after laser relentlessly at Zerebubuth but he just laughed at her attempts. He raised up his left hand and pointed the giant lens at her, charging up his Bio-Blaster. Two Breznels collided with him though, spoiling his aim. The stray shot rent open a giant hole next to her and Rictor. Zerebubuth turned to who attacked him, his eyes burning with anger at having his kill taken away from him. Strong Guy kept throwing more Zoanoids while closing the distance between them. Zerebubuth lunged forward and attempted to slice off an arm or two, but Strong Guy grabbed his wrist and slammed the blades into the floor, embedding them to the hilt, then sent an uppercut to Zerebubuth's chin sending him flying back.
"Bishop, Forge said he needs you now!" Siryn flew to Bishop, using her sonic attack to clear a path back to were Forge was waiting. "We'll keep them off you, now go!"
Bishop hesitated, not wanting to leave his friends in the middle of a hostile force, before he hurried back to where Forge was waiting for him. Not before hearing the death screams of Dazzler and Strong Guy.
-- -- --
"And now I'm here."
All was quiet in the room as they digested the horrible tale that Bishop shared with them.
"Professor, we'll need to evacuate the mansion. If Bishop's accounts are accurate, then most of the students will be in danger, their powers will serve nothing more than a minor distraction, a nuisance at best." Cyclops said softly to Charles.
"Sorry Summers, but if you do that, then your signing the death warrants for everybody who stays behind, and a prolonged fate for those that escape. We did that, and we lost, what you need to do is get everybody here, and arm them. If they're powers won't hurt them, give them a gun. Ya' see these? These guns are designed by Forge. Normal firearms have no effect on a Zoanoid, so Forge cooked these up."
"Bishop may I see that?" Forge asked. Bishop shrugged and handed him one of his pistols. Forge looked over the gun before removing the clip. "Hmm. Standard firing mechanism, with chemical/high explosive yield." He looked up at Bishop. "But I don't recognize the chemicals' mixture?"
"You won't. Beast supplied you the basic composition, and you used one of your super computers to mass produce the ammunition."
"With a sample I should be able to deduce the individual components to synthesis a compound with similar results, if not the original." Beast added.
"Whatever," he turned back to Cyclops. "Getting rid of all your available manpower will be suicide. If given the time those two can make up enough firepower to make a big difference."
Cyclops bristled, "Some of the students are children Bishop, you want to give them a gun too?"
"No," Bishop countered. "But kickin' em out to be fetched by Chronus isn't too bright! Trust me, I know!"
"Enough!" Xavier's voice rang through the room. "Scott, I agree with Bishop on this matter, if Chronus knows about this place, then they can find any who leave here…" his voice trailed off as he turned toward a set of double doors that led to the hall. He maneuvered his wheelchair and directed himself facing the doors. "Jean get the door please." He asked softly. She simply nodded as the doors swung open. An audible gasp escaped from all the mutants as The Brotherhood of Mutants marched into the room. Magneto stopped in front of Charles, cold fire burning in his eyes.
"Your office. Now." Magneto voice was grim. His face looked as if it was carved out of stone. Xavier just nodded, a look of concern on his face as he led the way.
The rest of the brotherhood stayed in the main room. Glaring at them while keeping to the far side of the room. The X-Men glaring right back. The humans could practically see the tension in room as the two factions squared off.
"Eric, what's wrong? What has happened?" The concern was evident in Charles voice as he wheeled around in his office to look at his long time friend. Eric Lehnsherr remained silent as he closed the door with an audible click. He crossed the length of the room and flopped down on the couch with a heavy sigh. When he finally looked up to his friend, Charles could see the sadness there, even if he wasn't a telepath.
"They found Mystique, Charles." Eric's voice was pinched and strained. "Found her, then sent her back, what was left of her."
"Oh, Eric." Charles sighed, trying to think of something to comfort him.
"That wasn't the worst part," he spoke softly, his eyes filled with hate, with anger. "She was still alive in that crate she arrived in. Just had enough life left in her to deliver a final message to me. Chronus knows everything about us. Who we are and what we can do." Eric got off the couch in a huff. "This goes past any conflict we ever had. More important than any struggle we had to deal with." He whirled around to face Charles. "They killed her! Tortured her body past it limits, and then sent her home in a crate!! This corporation is a bigger threat then the homo sapiens."
Charles simply looked at his friend, speechless as Eric told his story. Eric walked over to Charles desk and slipped off his helmet, and suddenly as if somebody hit an on switch, Charles could sense all of Eric's emotion, and images flashed into his mind. A gasp escaped the lips of a helpless Xavier as Eric opened his mind to him.
"Yes, Charles take a good look." Eric growled. His eyes closed as he too relived those moments with Charles. The professor struggled to catch his breath; he never felt so much anger and remorse from a single source. Then these images to add on to that, Charles reeled from the mental blitzkrieg as the memories played on.
"A war has started, old friend." Eric Lehnsherr whispered. "A war where only the true Homo Superior can hope to survive."
"And I fear, we won't survive the week."
To Be Continued…
Note: Well that's the third chapter. Again sorry for the long wait. I can't begin to describe what all has happened and why I was so slow in posting this. Anyways please Read and Review. I really would like to know some thoughts on this story, and any suggestions on how it should go. Oh yeah, the guyvers didn't get the spotlight this chapter, sorry, but they will be a major role in the upcoming chapters, honest. Personally I'm dying to do a good Guyver fight scene in this story.