Chapter 3
Even before the dawn, all X-Men were ready to the jobs, which their commander ordered them to do. Each of them knew very well what he or she was supposed to do, even criminals in the camp for 198 whom the freedom was promised for the help. Emma, assisted by three young girls called Stepford Cuckoos, got in touch telepathically with everyone from the team. Conversations could run only and exclusively by means of a telepathy so none of members of the O.N.E. organization guarding the school could guess what mutants had planned.
"All of you from three X-Men teams must go to the hangar of Blackbirds. You must go one by one and with using different routes to arouse no suspicions. In fifteen minutes, Sage will break into S.H.I.E.L.D. computer systems in order to infect them with the virus, thanks to which we'll cheat cameras installed by agents across the entire school. Amelia and Kurt wait for the signal. As soon as everyone will board the planes, you'll teleport to the camp for 198 and you'll take the ones about which we talked yesterday. Remember not to act earlier. Sam , Dani and Shan - go to halls of residence so that none of kids tries to be a hero. This also regards the ones who lost their abilities after the M Day. You must protect them from all consequences of our decision. Meld, remember that your role is the most important. Without your help we won't be able to get out of the school, don't hesitate because you irresoluteness can shatter all our plans. I thank you once again. Remember to be the best there is at what you do. All of you."
Emma finished the telepathic monologue. She looked at Scott who was keeping company all the time.
"We'll become fugitives Scott." She said.
"Not for the first time. We must do what's right."
"Don't you regret it? After many years you managed to build this place, school for mutants which isn't just camp training next generation how to fight for better tomorrow. This decision will destroy this world and replace it with the place full of fear and prejudice."
"The M day destroyed the chance of the subsequent development of our race and our life with other people. At the moment, we must remember only about us and protect remaining mutants at all costs. We'll be thinking about consequences, when we're safe."
"Scott, I'm with you. Like everyone else who I'm united with now."
Mutants emerged from their rooms and went to the hangar. Gambit and Rogue met two O.N.E. soldiers patrolling premises of the institute. Asked where they came off, they answered that they had intended to relax in the Danger Room. Danielle and Shan also underwent the short conversation with other guards strolling in the vicinity of halls of residence full of young, former and current mutants. The rest of them reached their destination without any surprises. Sage let the virus into systems installed by O.N.E. at the institute, thanks to which cameras showed empty corridors instead of X-Men dressed in uniforms going for mission. Stepford Cuckoos as well as Rachel and Emma used telepathy to erase a few last minutes from the memory of everyone who met or could see mutants. Meld was sitting inside one of large Sentinels being overwhelmed by a swirl of thoughts, he tried to calm down and carry the order given by Emma Frost out. Cyclops' Havok's and Storm's groups were inside black flying machines. White Queen united telepathically with mutants, whose role was crucial.
"Rachel, Cuckoos, help me to overcome minds of soldiers around the school right after we take off. They must forget the moment of starting blackbirds' engines. Meld, prepare to let the Sage virus into Sentinels' systems. Amelia and Kurt, teleport to the camp and take 198. You must do it in one jump, there will be no possibility of return."
Nightcrawler and Amelia teleported leaving characteristic clouds of smoke behind. At the same moment, Cyclops, Havok and Storm started engines of planes preparing for the take-off and telepaths affected the minds of agents walking around school grounds, erasing every second, after a thud of taking off planes sounded in surroundings, out from their memory.
Meld, breaking all doubts and hesitations inside his mind, connected with computer systems of his friends' large robots and infected them with the destructive virus received from black-haired technopath. Cloud of sulphur appeared behind Arclight and Scalphunter waiting in the impatience for the signal from the team.
"We're beginning." The mutant with blue skin said and not waiting for members of Marauders reaction, he teleported them to teams which they had to assist with their abilities. Amelia Voght in the form of a fog moved to 198's tent, and having seen Mammomax, Fever Pitch and Sack, returned back to the material form.
"The mission began. Prepare for the transport. The change into the gaseous form is very nasty when you're going through it for the first time, but we don't have a time for being gentle." The Woman turned her body into the cloud of the pink smoke, but this time the transformation also affected the elephant man, the flaming skeleton and the mutant with green, translucent skin with the consistency of a jelly. Everything was ready, X-Men could begin mission without obstacles. Deciding on such a radical step towards government agents, they automatically became criminals. They knew that their spectacular escape, cheating of S.H.I.E.L.D. computer systems, destroying expensive electronics inside the Sentinels latest models and messing with several minds of men and women had moved them close to methods applied by Magneto and people similar to him, but in times when extinction threatened mutants, rescuing even one member of their race was significant, regardless of the consequences. Three black machines went up above a building complex of Xavier's institute, unnoticed by eyes of cameras and sensors of large machines misled by computer virus as well as not registered by minds of people guarding school, cleaned from all memories by five women telepaths.
The plane with Scott Summers' team aboard flew towards Genosha. Emma interfaced telepathically with her pupils from the school and gave them comments how to deal with government agents. The Cuckoos report explicitly indicated, that their plan worked well and none of soldiers managed to spot the truth hidden behind a carefully forged illusion of telepathy and false data inside computers. Kitty Pryde sat close to Piotr Rasputin. The Russian noticed that the girl had been sad and very restless.
"What is going on Katia? You didn't say a word to me."
"Don't this flight resemble you something, Peter?" The girl asked.
"I don't know what you wanted to say..."
"The last time, when we flew to Genosha to talk with the professor and decide what to do with Wanda Maximoff... the weather was the same as today... and later the entire world disappeared in whiteness embracing everything..." Kitty answered closing her eyes.
"We have it behind us... Cerebro does not give any indications of Wanda or Magneto's existence. Perhaps they no longer live, or were deprived of their abilities. That reality will never arise again, don't be afraid."
"I know... but I'm wondering whether we certainly did the right thing defeating Scarlet Witch and forcing her to restore the real world. Peter, I was happy there! I had a simple life of a teacher of children so much similar to me. And when the illusion faded away, I woke up in a world in which our race is dying out and we were isolated from the rest of the world like in some damn camp. Perhaps we should have accepted what Wanda gave to us?"
"The world wasn't real. He was a whim of the ill woman and the life of each of us was there to fulfill our most secret desires, but distorted by the Scarlet Witch's magic like by the crooked mirror in the funfair, Kitty." Dr. Henry McCoy joined the conversation.
"Kitty, you were only a puppet in hands of Wanda Maximoff and her family there but in the real world you have a control over your life and the place you are in depends only on yourself. We were in worse trouble and we overcame them, we can do it again."
"Thanks Henry." The girl answered.
"Despite everything, I had hands and a human mouth there. I had a dream work and the world's recognition there. " Beast announced looking at his paws coated with blue fur.
"And my parents were alive." Shadowcat added.
"I don't know what you're chatting about, but I hope that we'll quickly reach the place! I'm fed up of sitting in such a tight hole." Fever Pitch stopped the conversation of mutants.
"When you will perform an operation doc? Because I'm starting losing patience." He added pointing his bony hand at the McCoy's face.
"You showed us nothing but an irritating chatting. Keep quiet and calm and wait until we reach the island."
"And perhaps I'll free myself? I'm sure that I'll manage to melt this can with you everyone inside it." Fever Pitch threatened.
"Try it. You'll see what surprise I prepared for you." Emma Frost spoke telepathically in the mind of the criminal. The mutant calmed down, when he noticed that the woman entirely controlled his body.
"Are you thinking about Charles?" Scott asked Amelia Voght who was looking out of the window of the plane. The woman at first didn't answer him, because her thoughts were somewhere else.
"Yes... not only about him... I'm thinking about everything what happened so far. You're talking about Wanda Maximoff, the brightness devouring the world. I don't understand it all and I don't have the foggiest idea why the majority of friends of mine lost abilities. If you know who is behind this, why won't you share it with the rest of the world? The situation in the world is bad, almost on the border of disaster. If the world knew the truth, perhaps we would avoid the unnecessary fight."
"Amelia, believe me, if the world knew the truth, it would be much worse. Nobody would trust anybody having superhuman powers. We must conceal the truth, even if it leads to misunderstandings."
"Which means that you won't share your knowledge of what actually happened with me?"
"I'll tell you about it. But not now. There is an important task before us."
He was a leader, malicious and violent
His fame is covered with blood
Now he's just a number, he lost all his power
The king has lost his face
Magneto was sitting on a chair on the terrace of the destroyed residence, looking at ruins of the large capital city Hammer Bay, sticking out of red sand. He was unshaven and his dress and the cape were dirty from dust devils, which were more and more frequent in the dead city. The mutant woman with the eye patch came up to him. She had a leather dress and bare hands which returned to thaier natural state after months of being green tentacles.
"They're nowhere, Erik" She said, but the man didn't react to her words.
"There is no track of Charles or your children." She added. Magneto didn't answer her, so she decided to leave him.
"Kids downstairs need you now much more than ever. They're horrified and disorientated, because it's another tragedy in their life. We must get out from this cursed island, for their own sake, for the good of us also."
"Callisto..." The man answered not turning towards the woman.
"Take them farthest from this city. And remember to not turn around, when you're a long way from here. " Magneto returned to monotonous staring at the red desert of his old kingdom.
"And what are you going to do? You won't survive here, not now when..." The woman tried to impel him to the cooperation. The grey haired man looked at her with clearly noticeable hate in the eyes. The gesture of his fist suggested, that if Erik had his abilities, Callisto would be pierced by the shower of scraps of metal.
"I must not tolerate your presence! If you don't go out from here, you'll become convinced, that although I'm only an elderly man now, I 'm still able to kill a woman with my bare hands!"
Mutant, seeing burning hate of man, decided not to have a discussion with him anymore. She left the residence, heading for the square, where her younger friends waited. Hub moved close to the woman. Her face expressed the concern.
"Where is Magneto?" She asked.
"He isn't going with us. He stays here, in Hammer Bay. His decision is irreversible."
"He hasn't any chance to survive! We must take him with us!" The girl was upset with behavior of ex-president of the country in which she spent a few years of her life.
"Hub, if you care about him so much, just go to him. Convince him to come back to us. But I guarantee you, that if you do it, you will stay here also... forever." Callisto said. The saddened girl came back to her group.
"We have a problem, Callisto." Shola announced.
"Yes? It's something new..." One-eyed woman replied ironically.
"Wicked disappeared. I tried to find her at the morning, but couldn't." Freakshow informed.
"Karima, did you scan the area?" The woman turned to her cyborg friend standing besides.
"No, I won't find her now, when she is no longer a mutant."
"Listen, we don't have much time. If the girl isn't found to the evening, we're setting off without her. We cannot risk sitting in one place any longer. Magistrates, Unus' people, even Avengers, they can appear here at any time and we aren't able to fight with any of them, do you understand?"
"We can't leave her behind here! What will happen if she gets into someone's hands?"
"Wicked is an adult. She knew that we had been supposed to move out from Genosha today. If she didn't appear, it means she doesn't want to move from here and it's her private matter! We don't have time to ask her to listen to us! I lost too much time with this old fool!" Callisto hailed the boy, since she had to express all her frustration.
At the same time, Erik sensed someone's presence inside the citadel. He got up from a chair, moving in the direction of the room plunged in the total darkness. His vigilant eyes noticed the move deep inside chambers, almost unnoticeable, rhythmical, repeating itself periodically. Somebody was breathing, Magneto was sure that one person was in hiding in a shadow.
"Leave, I know that you are there." He said. The black-haired girl got out of the darkness. She looked at the man with sorrowful eyes and he noticed that her black make-up had been entirely smeared by flowing tears.
"Why aren't you with the group? They're setting off soon to escape from this cursed place! If you be late you'll stay here" Erik was worried of his young familiar. Wicked approached him.
"I'm staying here. I have nothing what I could live for." She answered refraining herself from tears with an effort.
"Wicked... your friends worry about you, you cannot drag off any longer, because when our enemies appear here, it'll be too late. Come back to them!"
"Why, aren't you coming back?" The girl asked, stopping the monologue of the mutant.
"Don't compare my situation with yours, child!" Erik clenched fists. Then he was possessed by anger again.
"I lost everything, the M Day took from me aim in my life! The nation which I served, the race, even my children and Charles! In the world after the M Day there is no room for the idea which Magneto represented! You're a teenager, don't compare me to yourself!" the man was surprised, that he had opened his heart before the girl so easily.
"I lost my parents, friends, everyone who I knew when robots attacked the Hammer Bay. I survived miraculously, but my life became a curse! Only the contact with ghosts caused that I could get up every morning but now I lost even this! The emptiness which cannot be filled up appeared in my soul!" The black-haired mutant girl spoke and tears mixed with black substance make-up flew from her eyes across her cheek.
"Therefore please... accept my decision and let me stay here... with you... please..."
Erik didn't say a word. He had no clue how to respond to the words of the girl, how to comfort her, how to help her. Wicked cuddled up to him, she started crying loudly. She rested the head on the chest of the man, she cannot stop the flood of tears. Erik remained adamant, but he didn't reject the mutant girl, he let her show her emotions as long as she needed it.
"Erik!" Magnus heard Callisto's voice. He gently turned the black-haired girl away and came back to the room with the terrace.
"Erik, couldn't you see Wicked somewhere? We cannot find her..." The one-eyed woman asked.
"She isn't here! I told you woman, don't appear here anymore!" Magneto said angrily. Callisto vacated the room, leaving the man alone with his thoughts. After a few minutes, Wicked appeared in the room. She looked at the grey haired mutant, smiling.
"Thank you." She said.
"In a few days, when the food is no more, you'll start to hate me. Therefore it'll be better for you, if you be farthest from me from the very beginning you." Erik announced.
The Havok team's plane approached the border between the USA and Canada. The mood aboard was very nervous, mainly on account of two new members of the team which were known criminals. Alex was focused on piloting the plane, therefore ignored Mammomax's chatting. The elephant man sat on the armchair nearby Arclight, trying to establish the dialogue with her. In a vain, because the woman ignored his presence. If not telepathy of Emma Frost and desire to remove the transmitter from her body, the woman would use her abilities on the giant, crushing all his bones into powder. Rogue helped Alex to pilot the plane and Gambit spent the flight in silence, looking to her and her Arclight with whom he was connected in the past. Or perhaps with the past of the original, or the earlier clone, the man could not be certain. The Marauders were cloned so many times that any information about the originals went missing in the dark chambers of Sinister's laboratories. Bobby Drake sat next to Lorna. He looked at her attentively, thinking why the girl didn't say a word since the blackbird had started. Earlier, he tried to start talking to her, joking and asking about trivial things, but seeing the lack of the reaction of green haired woman, he ceased all attempts. He didn't want to behave as Mammomax and to make even bigger idiot from himself. He decided to try again.
"Lorna, what's going on? You behave strangely..."
"Bobby, leave me alone. My head aches and I don't feel like talking." The girl answered turning towards the pane. Logan looked at her, as if he guessed what had worried her. He didn't say a word coming back to looking at the old photograph on which he was with Hudsons standing nearby some Canadian forest.
In the same time, the plane of Storm's group approached the place of its destination. Brown skinned goddess with white hair turned to her black-haired friend sitting beside.
"Sage, do you have any information from the school? Did our masquerade come to light?"
"I don't know, I had to stop the contact with systems of the institute, because otherwise O.N.E. could easily locate us and the others. We cannot come back to the school, until we explain what happened in that supermarket."
"I'm thinking about kids from the school. I'm under the impression that something terrible will happen there."
"Ororo, we must believe, that Sam and his friends will protect them." said Rachel.
"And you Rachel, cannot you contact with somebody from school?" The brown girl asked again.
"No, from the same reasons as Sage's, we must preserve telepathic radio silence. With the school as well as with teams of Scott and Alex."
"You worry about Scott, Ray, I can see." Kurt joined the conversation.
"They're flying to Magneto, am I supposed not to worry? And apart from that he's with Frost, I would prefer that he fights with Magneto." The girl replied falling into a pensive mood.
"Graycrow! How long are you going to sit idly?" Sack asked the long-haired man with the moustache sitting by him.
"What do you mean?" Scalphunter answered very unwillingly.
"Should we not think about the escape? Such a chance may not repeat itself again. Do you think that they will keep their promise and remove transmitters from our bodies? Don't be easy, Greycrow."
"I'll be doing what I have a willingness to do." The man announced.
"And now I don't feel like talking to you and looking at your transparent kisser, do you understand?" he added angrily. The gelatinous mutant went quiet coming back to looking out of the window at white clouds moving all over the sky.
"How we are supposed to search the place of the explosion, it is certainly swarming with police and journalists." Betsy asked.
"I'll try to use my contacts at police. After all, I helped them in Town Mutant before the M Day. Perhaps I will manage to learn whether they find anything regarding the case." Bishop replied.
"I don't like them with us." He added pointing at Gene Nation and Marauders members sitting close by.
" Nothing good will result from it." He said.
"Scott's decision, we have no choice. I think that he did the right thing, because the safety of our kids is the most important." Storm announced
"If they're disobedient, I'll treat them the way XSE treated criminals." Bishop looked in the direction of mutants incorporated into X-Men rows by force and his right hand sparkled with the energy gathered in his body.
Meanwhile in the completely different place, perhaps even light years from the Earth, or thousands of years from our times in one of two possible temporal directions, or perhaps close to Earth but in the dimension separated from ours by the curtain of vibrating multiversal membranes, the young woman with brown hair could not be reconciled with her imprisonment and helplessness. She climbed on a steep mountain, believing that if she reaches the top, she will be in a place from which there will be escape. She managed to climb quite high, but a moment of inattention and the tiredness caused that her leg had slipped. The girl tumbled down into the bottom pulled by the gravity of the planet. She butted against the earth very strongly, but her training caused that she had damaged no important body parts. Achy, she tried to get up from the fall. Her companion in misery came up to her.
"I told you that you can't climb this mountain. You are really stubborn!" He said.
"Am I supposed to sit as you and do nothing? No way!" Carmella replied angrily.
"You're lucky that the gravity of this world is a bit smaller than the Earth's, otherwise you would certainly break something. And I would have trouble." Jared announced sitting down beside brown haired companion.
"You don't have to hang around me! If you don't like what I'm doing, go to some of these cottages and sit there!" The girl wanted to drive the intrusive man away.
"And you will be climbing a mountain senselessly and falling from it, until you break something, yes?"
"Not your fucking business!" Carmella shouted.
"It concerns me, because we're here alone, so I should take care of you. It's the natural order of things."
"Oh no... don't even start. If it seems to you that because we're imprisoned here alone, you can sleep with me, you're making a grave mistake. Don't even try to approach me, I warn you!" The girl turned around. She looked at rock planning another trial of the climbing.
"It would be rather impossible." Radius answered. Unscione stopped.
"And why? Are you gay?"
"No, no... nothing of the kind. You know, being in the team serving the government one can have an access to classified records of people having powers and people with criminal records. You don't know how far the information dates back. I sought my past, not entirely legally... and I came across documents about you."
Carmella interested by the information came closer to Jared.
"What do you want to tell me?" She asked.
"Carmella, you are my sister." The man replied. The girl was struck dumb. She knew that Jared had been dead serious. Intuitively she sensed that there had been no shadow of the lie in what he said.
"Let us walk to the cottage. I'll tell you what I learnt about our family. About our parents and in particular about our father."
Callisto, Freakshow, Shola, Huba, Karima and Book walked through the ruins of genoshan metropolis littered with rubble and wrecks of vehicles. Freakshow was furious at the one-eyed woman for taking him with the rest of the team against his will. The boy didn't want to leave his friend Wicked behind on the graveyard covered with a red sand. He knew that the girl hadn't had any chance of independent surviving. Black-haired mutant tried to raise his spirits.
"It was her decision. Very stupid, I will agree with it, but her own. If she wants to stay here, to live in ruins or to die, she has the right to it. We won't be risking the health and live only to seek her out."
"Wicked isn't alone here. There's a Magneto here, McCoy, even Unus' people. They aren't so bad, perhaps they will take care of her." Hub also tried to calm him.
"I don't understand, why the Magneto wants to stay here. He faced the same fate as all of. We should now support one another". The fat woman in glasses said. She had more and more problems with a long walk.
- Erik lost completely everything. He is nobody, one among many numbers, he isn't a king who terrifies the whole world anymore. I don't think he gets up from such a fall." Callisto announced.
"Now he has another reason for the revenge." said Shola.
"Yes, but the revenge which has no chance for realization." The one-eyed mutant finished.
"It 's interesting what happened with Charles." Mildred thought aloud.
"We need him now more, than at any time earlier. If he isn't here, we must be reconciled that he doesn't live." Callisto announced.
"Listen... something will come near..." Karima stopped the discussion of the team feeling that they was threatened by some danger. At some point, somewhere from behind ruins of the building a huge metal net fell out. When it fell on the woman, it paralyzed her with a huge electrical discharge.
"Karima!" Hub shouted. Woman cyborg fell down to the ground. The attack effectively neutralized her. Without the arsenal of the girl, the team of the mutants deprived of the powers was completely defenseless in the face of any threat. Callisto nervously looked all around until at last she noticed Unus and members of his gang hiding between rusting wrecks and ruins.
"Damn it!" She swore.
"They have supplies! Take them!" Unus cried. His subordinates obediently and willingly carried the order out. Caiman ran up to Callisto and slapped her in the face with all his might. Mutant woman surprised by the fact that, in spite of the the M Day he was in his reptilian form, she didn't manage to react. She hit ruin of the wall, growing of a sand, and lost consciousness.
"They didn't lose their ability..." Shola said looking with a terror at the green skin of the man. Caiman smiled widely.
"I lost them... but in terms of physicality I didn't change myself. I cannot control my tail but I'm still strong enough to beat you up all." He boasted. Ginger Glamour ran up to Book and turned her over into red sand with one kick. The fat woman didn't have any chance in the clash with younger and much more athletic girl.
"We won't give up so easily!" The bald black man announced looking defiantly at Unus.
"Hub , come closer to me..." He said to the friend. The girl carried his order out.
"Are you sure that you don't want to give up? There's too many of them." She whispered to his ear.
"No... that's no use. They'll manhandle us. Look what that witch did to Mildred. We cannot give them satisfaction." The Black threw himself into the fray. He ran up to Caimana, trying to attack him with right fist. The mutant dodged, but Shola reacted in a flash avoiding the blow of the green hand. The boy guessed that Caiman hadn't been so fast like in the past, since his tail was only a paralyzed heap of muscles and bone. He forced him to a swing away violently to his side and when the mutant lost its balance by his tail, he set about to the attack. A mutant was struck by his elbow and his own mass and momentum, he turned him over to the ground. In the same time. Hub struggled with the ginger opponent. The black woman was faster and more athletic, she skillfully avoided blows of the woman. Girls hit their faces several times, so trickles of the fresh blood flowed down their noses.
"You aren't giving up?" Glamour said smiling.
"To somebody like you? Never!" Hub replied.
Girls moved at themselves again. Shola found Lighting Rod, the mutant deprived of the powers, who had to use the net and the stun gun in order to achieve the same effect as his touch before M Day, hiding in ruins, of mutant. The mutant was a pale weakling, he didn't have the smallest chance in the clash with the strong, black man.
"It's for Karima, you rubbish!" Shola said massaging the hand aching from the blow to the jaw of the man. Hub slapped Glamour's face several times. She didn't stop beating all the way to the moment when ginger girl staggered on legs. Black woman, filled with a rush of adrenaline, gave her ultimate, deciding blow.
When her opponent was defeated, the girl, tired out and achy, leaned against the dry fountain. Unfortunately she couldn't rest. The pair of her old acquaintances loomed into the view from behind a bend of the road: Hack - the thin boy in glasses and brute Purge.
"Hub... don't resist us..." Hack mumbled.
"Don't fight with us, then it won't hurt you." Purge added.
"Are you with them? After all, we were friends!" the girl shouted wiping blood from her lips.
"You have a food, you don't share it with us... I'm sorry Hub." Purge announced smiling.
"You won't get me so easily, you Judas!" The black woman shouted with an anger. She tried to resist, but she didn't have a chance in the fight against the bigger and stronger opponent, huge even after the loss of his superhuman abilities. Shola approached Unus. He looked at him defiantly, inviting him to the duel one on one. The man only laughed.
"I don't intend to fight with you. Am I untouchable, you forgot about it?"
"I'll demonstrate you how untouchable you really are!" Shola prepared to hit his opponent. Unus smiled again pointing at Purge and Hack standing in the distance. The long-haired blonde man held unconscious Hub.
"Purge, prepare to break her neck!" The former mutant shouted.
"Hub! You piece of shit, you won't dare to do it!" the black man was horrified that the friend closest to him could at any time lose her life.
" I'll dare. Unless you surrender me." Unus offered.
"Ok. I surrender." Shola announced without a moment of thought. He knew, that Hub would do for him exactly the same. Angelo hit him the strongest he was able. The boy fell down, losing all willingness for the fight.
"It aches more than earlier..." Unus was surprised looking at his hand.
"What are we doing with them?" Purge asked.
"We'll take them to the centre. McCoy wanted to experiment a little. Leave behind that woman because she's under the voltage." He said showing Karima lying in dirt and the net connected to the electricity.
"We're taking the rest with us! Caiman, Glamour and Lighting Rod, get up soon or else I will leave you on the desert!" He shouted overfilled with the self-confidence after the victory over Xavier's newest foster children.
Carmella and Jared sat inside the wooden cottage next to each other, looking at tongues of the fire dancing in the fireplace. The girl gave the pointless mountain climbing up and she didn't intend to walk the deep chasm down into the opposite site of plateau. She wouldn't get up from the a few kilometer fall, even on the planet with reduced gravity. Radius was talking about himself.
"We lived at one orphanage, but you were quickly adopted, maybe because you were a girl, or because you were the youngest, I don't know. You probably don't remember those times."
Carmella shook her head in the negation.
"Living in the orphanage was a hell, for me and for Adrian. I wouldn't like to dwell those times on too much."
"Adrian?"
"Yes, you have one more brother. We were brought up at the orphanage and then we found our way to the camp training of Department H. Nobody gave us choice, you were much luckier."
"I wouldn't call it luck. If I stayed with you, today I would wear colors of your team. Instead, the people who adopted me needed me only to pay smaller taxes. I was nothing, an object, a foundling from the shelter. My childhood and the period of the school is constant hiding in the bathroom from the stepfather and my classmates."
Jared listened carefully to the woman. He didn't want to stop her story.
"One day, a few boys invited me to the party, after the persuasion of some idiot. I went, because I was very naive then. They got me drunk and tried to rape me. They failed, because I escaped but today I cannot bear the touch of the other people. I told the stepfather about everything and he... now I have a scar on the head after his reaction... I escaped from the house hoping that I would never come back there again. And then they caught me... my would-be rapists. They wanted to take revenge for the fact that I tried to inform the police. They wanted to complete what they started on that party. And then my mutant abilities appeared - psionic armour and force field. I was finally strong, I finally stopped being defenseless! I took revenge on for injustice, I took revenge on them, on my stepfather..."
"Did you kill them?"
"No, but now they are cripples chained to beds. They will never hurt anybody again."
"Waking up of power was your salvation, Carmella."
"Yes, if not for it, I would die from hands of those monsters or I would take my own life. Powers granted the real importance to my being, they showed me, that I was somebody else, somebody better than the ones who persecuted me. I could spread my wings. A rest of the story is wandering over the States until at last Acolythes found me." The girl finished the monologue.
"If we were together, all of that wouldn't happen..." Jared replied being lost in thought.
"And how a mutant influenced you?"
"My abilities were force field which passes through exclusively an air and water only. When it appeared, I felt stronger, safer. I could finally fight with bigger than me. But soon it turned out that it had been a curse. Field was not permeating for everything. I had to eat through the specially constructed device. I didn't feel no touch on the skin... perhaps it's good that I lost my abilities."
"You said that you had searched the data concerning our family. Did you find something more?"
"Yes, I learnt that I and Adrian had had different fathers and the same mother. I learnt about your existance and about the fact that we had common father. I learnt whom our father was. Angelo Unscione, Unus the Untouchable."
"Ah, it explains our powers. But wait... are you saying that his surname is Unscione?"
"Yes."
"My adoptive parents were also called Unuscione... namely they were related to my biological father... this bastard had to know how they treated me and didn't react! I'm pleased now that I've never met him!"
"Or perhaps he simply got you out of the orphanage so that you didn't fall into Department H's hands..."
"Unimportant. I have now another reason to get out from here. To find Unus and beat him up, like everyone who hurt me before."
"Perhaps I'll help you with it!" Jared replied. The conversation of siblings was stopped by the flash of the bright light behind the window of the cottage.
"What's this?" Carmella asked.
"Exactly the same appeared, when they brought you here! They brought somebody!" Radius replied. They left the cottage and dashed off towards the house by which the lighting appeared. They ran up too late, anybody who arrived with the new victim of the decimation, teleported a long time ago in the direction well-known to only himself. Carmella came into the interior of the cottage noticing the girl lying on the floor. It turned out that she had been an Asian with short, black hair, dressed in the yellow jacket.
X-Men's Blackbird landed on the Hammer Bay's square. X-Men were ready to meet Magneto and start to seek Xavier as well as Erik's missing children. Their plans were foiled by Karima Shapandar lying in the sand. The woman was immobilized by the electric net. Scott ordered Hank and Kitty to take care of her as soon as he saw the girl. He intended to face Magneto miself.