Chapter Nine
Forensic teams from London and New York had set up camp in the blasted out ruins of what had once been the east wing of Braddock Manor. They'd sectioned the area into grid squares of blue rope: dozens of uniformed figures, mutant and human, all in black wellies and reflective, florescent yellow raincoats, all focused on methodically sifting through the rubble and stone for evidence…and any sign of organic remains.
Logan's sensitive nose wrinkled at the stench of charred circuitry and twisted metal that lingered in the heavy fog, and he bared his teeth in a snarl. The manor's busy front entrance stood open despite the damp, so he strode inside, past the clusters of police and technicians, and headed straight for Excalibur's Control Room.
"Hey, Crawler."
The shadowy mutant glanced up from the computer console and Logan found himself genuinely startled by his friend's appearance. In the time they'd served and fought together, as X-Men and as soldiers during the Third World War, the Wolverine had seen his friend battered and torn, but never had he felt a chilling jolt like the one he felt now, as Nightcrawler's bloodshot yellow eyes met his. Dark stubble poked through the fuzz-like indigo fur on Nightcrawler's narrow chin, and his cheeks had a sunken look that emphasized his more demonic features…especially in the control room's dim light.
"Logan…"
The man's accented voice was rough and tight, as if he hadn't used it for days. Logan swallowed a surge of aching empathy that threatened to sting his eyes.
"Any clues?" he asked.
Kurt shook his head.
"Too many. And too few," he said. "But you should talk to Moira. She is making progress. While I…"
He shuddered all the way to the spade of his tail and rose from his chair to pace the room.
"There has been no sign of them, Logan," he said, words spilling out of him in a rising flood of anguished fury. "So it's possible that they are not d— That they might have escaped, before the explosion. Marta…she could have teleported them out. But, then where are they? Why do they not come home?"
He tore his thick fingers through his wild, unwashed hair, then gestured to the paused image on the console's main monitor.
"I have been over and over the salvaged surveillance recordings, again and again, searching frame by frame for any clues, anything strange or out of place," he said, "but I can't help feeling that I am wasting time, that I should be out there, out searching… But where, Logan? It is ridiculous, that we, with all our experience and technology, should not yet even have a starting place!"
"Kurt, you have to know we—"
"Nein!" Kurt snarled, his fangs bared. "Don't dare tell me we are doing what we can, or that these things take time. I have spent most of my life tracking and catching terrorists, breaking up smuggling rings, finding those criminals most expert at not being found and bringing their crimes to light. But now…now my own daughters are missing…my students... I have been rendered useless. All this…all this technology, these computers, the police force, the X-Men themselves—!"
Wolverine set his jaw in the face of his haggard friend's palpable agony.
"When did you eat last, Elf?" he asked.
"Don't start with that," Kurt grunted. "How can I eat while meine Kinder sind—"
"Right," Logan cut him off. "Then I take it you're not sleeping either."
Kurt snarled dangerously, his tail lashing behind him.
Logan sighed through his nose.
"Hey, I know it's not what you want to hear, Elf," he said, "but you know as well as anyone you won't be any good to this investigation if you starve your brain and muscles of food and sleep."
He glanced at the frozen screen.
"Look, Kurt," he said. "I can stare at these vids as well as you can. Why don't you take a back seat for a while. I'm not sayin' you should leave the room or anything, just sit back and close your eyes for a few minutes. I can get Meggan or someone to rustle us up some sandwiches."
Kurt shook his head, his pain clear in his eyes, and Logan placed a blunt hand on his friend's arm. Kurt started to pull away…then seemed to crumple, all at once. He collapsed against Logan's broad shoulder, his lean form convulsed with harsh, racking sobs that seemed to tear from his very core.
Logan let the anguished man cry himself out, enduring the tortured roars and howls with a stern stoicism that belied the pain in his own heart.
He'd been an uncle to Kurt's kids since they were born, watched them grow, allowed himself to share in their family bond of love and trust. This investigation was as personal to him as it was to the rest of the Wagners' extended X-Men family, even he didn't hold out much hope for a positive outcome.
After a while, Kurt's violent sobs began to fade back to a sullen anger, and Logan led the exhausted mutant to a chair, where he almost immediately fell into a very restless sleep. Logan grunted and slid into the seat in front of the control monitor, resetting the vid to play from the start.
He was about four minutes in, when Kitty phased through the door.
"Kurt, Brian and I— Oh! Logan!" she exclaimed in surprise. "When did you get here?"
"Who'd you think piloted the jet bringin' the forensic experts here from New York?" he grunted. "What's up, Half-Pint?"
Kitty scrunched up her face at his use of her childhood nickname, but it was a sign of the urgency of her message that she didn't comment or complain.
"New information," she said, and glanced at Kurt with a slight, sad wince. "I don't know how you managed to get him to sleep, but I'm afraid we're gonna have to wake him up. He needs to hear this."
"You got a lead on the kids and that Betsy Braddock woman?"
Kitty nodded, her eyes wide and serious.
"And you're not gonna believe it," she said. "I'm gathering the team together in the conference room, so Brian and I can brief everyone at once. You're welcome to sit in. We start in ten minutes."
"We'll be there. After Kurt's gotten ten minutes' more sleep," Logan said, going back to sifting through the surveillance vid as Kitty phased through the floor, on her way to collect Moira and Alice from the medical lab.
"What are you saying? That Forge was somehow hacked? Like a computer?" Alice exclaimed, staring from Kitty to a rather shell-shocked-looking Forge. "How is that even possible? His mechanical limbs aren't artificial implants, they're a part of his mutation!"
"It was a specially engineered program…like a virus," Kitty explained. "A sort of organic-mechanical hybrid, like Forge himself. Doug is the one who found it. We think Forge contracted it when he linked with our computer system to enact his repairs and enhancements to our training room. But, the explosion wiped the traces so it'll take a while to reconstruct what really happened."
"Then, you're suggesting someone implanted that program in our systems – before Forge even began work," Kurt said through a fierce frown, his glowing eyes still bloodshot and rimmed with dark circles. "But who could have done this? And when?"
"We're not sure yet," Brian admitted reluctantly. "But, we do know this virus was used to turn Forge into a sort of zombie, if you will – like a hacker using a computer to remotely control another computer. When the virus took control, Forge acted according to its programming, without any knowledge or awareness of his actions. We think, in this way, Forge was forced to inadvertently sabotage our training room, setting it to self-destruct. That's our going theory, at least. We'll know more once the forensics teams pinpoint the origin of the blast."
"Have you managed to purge Forge of this virus?" Moira asked suspiciously, peering at Forge through her glasses as she dabbed at her sore nose with her handkerchief.
"We think so," Kitty said. "Doug and I ran a series of diagnostics on his circuit and neural pathways after the procedure and we haven't been able to find any lingering trace of the foreign program. There are a few more tests we intend to run, but I'm all but certain we got it."
"Then the question remains," Alistaire said, dabbing at his own chapped, runny nose. "Who? And why? Could it be the same terrorists responsible for infesting our water supply with this damned parasite? An attempt to get us off their trail, as it were?"
"Well, I—" Brian started, only to be cut off by the conference room door swinging open. Brian's son, Samuel Braddock, rushed breathlessly in, his pale face flushed from running. Samuel wasn't a member of Excalibur and didn't plan to become one, he was a university student studying mathematics and astrophysics, but he and Marti had always been close, and he'd come home to help the moment he heard about the explosion.
"Father! Uncle Kurt!" the young man gasped.
"What is it, Samuel?" Brian demanded.
"The forensics teams…outside…" he panted, working hard to stand straight and control his breathing as he made his report. "The explosion, it was a cover! Sourced it to...an equipment locker. But, the Training Room – the holo emitters – they weren't just holo emitters! The whole place was set up as a giant, mechanical teleporting system!"
"But… What? How is that even possible?" Forge exclaimed, his coppery features ashen. "Even under outside control, there's no way I could construct a real, functioning teleporter! I mean, I've experimented with opening portals to other dimensions, but even then I wasn't able to reproduce what Kurt and Marti can do. The physics alone… It's impossible!"
But Brian, Kurt and Alice were preoccupied with a different concern.
"Then…that means…" Alice whispered.
Kurt met her gaze.
"Our girls may have been teleported…kidnapped…"
Kurt rose to his feet, his tail lashing like a whip.
"Tell me, Samuel," he said, "have the techs been able to determine if the teleporter system activated 'before' the explosion? Is there any way to trace where it went?"
"They think it's possible, but it'll take time to reconstruct enough of the program to recover any coordinates," Samuel said.
"I'm on it," Kitty said, her expression fierce and determined. "Samuel, go find Doug. I'm going to need his help."
"Right, Aunt Kitty," the young man said, and headed off.
"I'd like to help too, if you think it'd be all right," Forge said, his shock slowly morphing to anger. "I want to get at whoever did this to me - to all of us."
Kitty nodded.
"Thanks," she said.
"Well, if we're done here, you and I should be heading back to Rahne in the medical lab," Moira said to Alice through her sniffles, before looking to the rest of the group. "It's beginning to look like this wee waterborne beastie of ours has some very specific tastes. It is ineffective on individuals with an active X-gene, as we suspected, but it doesnae target ordinary humans indiscriminately. Our study has so far indicated only those humans with some kind of inherited 'flaw' – like the unfortunate Jeanine Prestcote with her Treacher Collins Syndrome, or poor vision, as is the case with myself and Alistaire – develop these blasted flu-like symptoms."
"Are you any closer to finding a way to eradicate this parasite?" Kurt asked.
"We're getting there," the doctor said. "I've got Rahne working on developing a compound that could dissolve the creatures' cell membranes. Problem is anything strong enough to affect the parasites also kills human cells."
"Well, keep working," Kurt said, and squeezed his wife's hand. "I want to talk with the forensics teams. We'll meet again to discuss our progress at dinner." He glanced at Wolverine. "See, Logan, I will make sure my team and I take care of ourselves. Would you mind continuing with the surveillance tapes? Your fresh eyes may pick up something I might have missed."
"Sure thing," Logan said.
"Danke, mein Freund," Kurt said, and the meeting was adjourned.
"Wakey, wakey, my little pets..."
Marta groaned dizzily, the world around her coalescing slowly, like watching the sunset from the bottom of a swimming pool.
"What happened?"
Marta turned her head, blinking blearily. That was her sister's voice...
"Suzie?" she said, and coughed. Her throat was dry.
"Marti!" Suzie exclaimed. "So, you're here too!"
"Seems so," Marta said. "But where is here?"
She sat up slowly, gradually realizing that she was in a cell...a small, square, zoo-like cell with thick walls of clear plastic. Small, round vents near the top allowed air and sound to circulate, and the ceiling was high - too high to reach by jumping. Marta pressed her hand against the warm plastic, but didn't feel the usual adhesive pull that allowed her to climb sheer surfaces. Try as she might, her hand slid, as if she were trying to climb a sheet of melting ice. Her sensory perception was off too - she had no idea how thick the plastic was, or the size and shape of the space outside. If she tried to teleport without that information, she could end up inside a wall, or a piece of furniture.
"Damn it..." she muttered, and called to Suzie.
"Where are you? I can't see you! And where is everyone else? Tessa and Cessily and Auntie Betsy and Uncle Forge...?"
"I don't know where the others are, but I'm right here, in the cell next to yours!" Suzie said. "Can you see me now?"
A pale, blurry smudge appeared in one plastic wall, and Marta rushed over to it, cupping her hands around her eyes in an attempt to see through.
"Sort of," Marta said. "Can you see me?"
"Only as a blue and red blob," Suzie said irritably. "Who do you think did this? Why are we being held here? I thought I heard a man's voice, just before you woke up..."
More groans began to sound, and before long Betsy, Tessa, and Cessily had joined Marta and Suzie in the awful realization that they had been kidnapped. Once they'd ascertained they were each all right, apart from being held captive, they began testing their powers, seeking ways out of their claustrophobic little cubes.
"I hate this!" Suzie roared, after her fifth failed attempt to shapeshift into a snake thin enough to squeeze through one of the round vents.
"Me too," Cessily grunted. "I mean, it totally sucks to have a body of, essentially, liquid metal, but it sucks worse when you're stuck all rigid in one form!"
"I feel like my brain's been wrapped in cotton wool," Betsy complained. "I can't sense a thing through these blasted cell walls!"
"My powers aren't working either," Tessa said worriedly. "What's going on?"
Marta frowned, and tried a short teleport to the far side of her cell.
Nothing happened.
"My guess is there's some kind of dampening field in operation," she said to the others, her voice thick with frustration and anger. "I remember Dad telling me about them...how they were used by Weapon X during the war to keep their 'experimental subjects' from using their powers outside the testing rooms."
"Ah... So, one of you knows your history. Encouraging..."
The five captives turned their heads to face the sound.
Suzie snarled.
"That's the voice! That's the man I heard before! That old-fashioned, super-posh accent. Ergh!" She pretended to shudder.
A dark figure moved forward, close enough for the captives to make out a vaguely silver, humanoid shape through the thick plastic of their cells.
"I've had enough of this nonsense," Betsy snapped angrily. "Listen up, whoever you are. You'd better let us go if you know what's good for you. Do you have any idea who I am?"
"You are the twin sister of Captain Britain," the man said in his rich, educated voice. "Cultivator of a vapid, and rather wasteful, celebrity, I'm afraid. I wouldn't expect you to know me...or to comprehend the significance of our meeting. But, perhaps...this one..."
He moved toward Marta's cell, his blurred shape growing taller, alarmingly tall...
"Do you know me, little teleporter? Has your dear 'Daddy' told you of the time he and I spent together? Of the work we failed to complete?"
Marta swallowed and stepped back, shaking her head in horrified denial.
"You...you couldn't be... He died. Essex... He drowned! Back during the war, when the X-Men flooded the Weapon X base at Alkali Lake!"
"Very good," the man said. "Very good. Dr. Essex did drown that day. Yes...yes, indeed. But he didn't die. No... He was found, revived. Reborn!"
"How wonderful for you," Betsy said dryly. "Always did love a man who spoke of himself in the third person. If the lesson's over now, how about letting us out of here?"
"Ignorant slut! Hold your tongue!" the man snapped.
"Excuse me!" Betsy exclaimed, thoroughly outraged, but he had already turned his attention back to Marta.
"You know the Nightcrawler was mine once. As was his friend, the Wolverine. They were each useful in their time, and in their own, limited way. But you... You children... You are the offspring of the offspring of mutants. Your genetic codes are rich and varied. Just what I need... To finally complete my work..."
"What, you want to study our genes? Our DNA?" Suzie asked and hocked a wad of spit at the blurry image on her cell wall. "There, you're welcome to scrape that into your petri dish. Can we go now?"
"Rude! And so impatient!"
"Yep, that's me. Rude and impatient," Suzie said. "And completely unconvinced you really are that traitor Dr. Essex who betrayed our dad back during the war. Like Marti said, he's dead. He's been dead longer than Marti and I have been alive! Wolverine saw his body, just before the dam burst completely and swept everything away. You're probably just some sad clone or robot or something, taught to think it's Dr. Essex."
"No. No. Not Essex, not any longer," the voice intoned. "I am more than that human ever was. Infinitely more! My metamorphosis - my evolution - has been long and slow, but the end is now in sight. I will be the one to assemble the Perfect Code. And once I do, I will become the template He needs. The template He has been waiting for all these years..."
"Template?" Marta asked. "What do you mean? Who needs a template?"
"You will find out...in time..."
The man's voice was fading, his blurred shape diminishing into the distance.
"Wait!" Marta called. "If you're not Dr. Essex any more, who are you? Tell us who you are becoming!"
The clack of the man's boots paused and he seemed to turn.
"You may call me Mr. Sinister," he said, and was gone, his footsteps swallowed by the pneumatic hiss of a heavy sliding door.
To Be Continued...
NOTES: This chapter references the X-Men: Evolution episodes "Middleverse" and "Shadow Dance," my previous Earth 723 stories "True Love Ways" and "The Day The Earth Stood Back," the comics, and the "X2: X-Men United" movie.
