Chapter XI
Cyclopes closed his cellphone. He had been talking to Iceman and learned that Rogue's team wouldn't be home for a while. Scott turned to his computer and logged into his email. He saw that he had four from Jamie Maddrox. All saying the same thing. Jamie wanted to know what the X-Men were doing to get everyone's powers back. Scott dialed Jamie's phone number, and listened to the ringing.
"Bout time Summers. everyone is freaking out in Mutant town, again. What the hell is going?" Jamie said into his phone.
"Yeah… The Hand got their hands on a very powerful pheromone mutant. They some how engineered a bomb that released a toxin that would basically delete our x gene." Scott said. Jamie listened, nothing good about this situation. "The toxin is spread through moisture and so far has covered 96 percent of the country. Thankfully I know of a few allies in Nevada and in Kansas." Scott finished. Both men felt helpless now.
"I think we are gonna stay here Scott. If it gets too tough up there you know you can call us. But I think Mutant Town needs us moor then you guys do right now." Jamie said. He knew that Scott would never call for help. Hell Scott would call Rogue's team before he called his, Jamie thought to himself.
"Don't worry we still have a few powers around. The kids didn't loose their powers. They took it upon themselves to protect us. We should be good for now." Scott said. "Just make sure to check in every once in a while. I don't want to find out someone died three weeks after the event."
"Yeah I got you. Talk to you later." Jamie said. Scott heard the phone click off. He set his phone on his desk and sat back in his chair thinking. 'How bad is it, that a bunch of teens and preteens have to protect us… their teachers, hell for some the closest thing to a parent' Scott thought. Scott heard a quick knock and looked up in time to see Emma walking through the door.
"Hey" Scott said looking at Emma.
"You know I have been around a long time when I only need to hear a one syllable word to know what you're thinking. Who needs telepathy with you." Emma said with a slight grin. "I came in to tell you that Wire's squad is back and they brought a couple of new friends."
"Wonderful. I suppose that the guest are in need of interrogation" Scott said getting up from his desk and following Emma out of the door. "Who do you want to send in there? I was thinking Logan, since he has dealt with the Hand before."
"I was actually going to have Mystique due the honors but the Cuckoos tell me that Rogue's team won't be coming home. So I have to agree, send in Logan." Emma said. They had walked down the hall to one of the many conveniently placed elevators and rode down to the sub basement.
The sub basement was formed into a T with the horizontal hallway having the hanger, Beast's lab, the main elevator, the infirmary, and the brig. The vertical hallway held the two smaller elevators, the war room, the danger room, a stairwell leading to the ground floor, and cerebra. Scott and Emma walked out of the left smaller elevator and turned toward the brig. Logan was waiting at the door with Laura. They weren't speaking verbally but Scott could almost see the tension between the two. Wire came out of the door wiping blood off of her hands.
"Wire, that had better be red pain and not blood, you are not allowed to do interrogations" Scott said.
" Look I worked him over for only thirty minutes and got the name of the man who hired the Hand. Laura is going in next. If you have a problem with this then you can try and stop us. Laura try your best not to kill him. I want Mindfreak's location, yesterday." Wire said shoving past Scott and Emma.
"You let them do this Logan. I thought you were trying to give Laura a better life!" Scott yelled.
"Look Summers, I aint got any way o' healin myself if Wire, and Laura decided that I am getting in their way. Now I wish they had listened to me but I can't make them not do something they want to do." Logan said. His voice had wavered, and he looked a little shaky. He had sweat dripping form his brow and his skin had started to turn dark. "Scott I think I…." Logan fell to his knees and blood started to drip from his mouth. "….need to go too the…" Logan tried to finish his sentence but fell forward and landed face down. Blood started to flow freely form his orifices.
"Logan!" Emma gasped. She ran about fifty feet down to the infirmary and ran in. Scott picked Logan's head up so that he wouldn't drown in his own blood.
"Emma! Hurry the hell up!" Scott yelled down the hall. He turned around and saw Emma, Hank, and Josh rushing over with a gurney. Wire and Josh picked Logan up and moved him onto the gurney. "Josh keep the infection back. The adamantium is giving him blood poisoning. Josh I want you healing him as long as you can" Scott said tersely. he and wire lifted the gurney up to its full height, and wheeled Logan into the infirmary. Emma went to the emergency phone and pushed the intercom button.
"I need Beast to the infirmary, NOW. I repeat Beast come to the infirmary, this is…" Emma broke off her sentence when she saw Hank run past her.
"Scott, get me some of Warren's blood out of the fridge, Josh keep healing for a little bit longer" Beast said. He ran to the corner and pulled over a large machine and stuck and IV into Logan's arm. Scott handed beast a bag of Angel's blood, which Hank connected to the machine through another iv and then put an iv in Logan's other arm. Hank turned on the machine and plugged up the heart monitor and put him on a ventilator. Everyone watched as blood started to flow from Logan's body through the IV, into the machine and then into the next IV back into his body. "Josh you can let go now. Warren's blood will keep him alive for now. But we are gonna have to hurry up and get that mutant and see if he can't undo this crap" Hank said. Hand connected the iv pole and the blood pump to the gurney and turned to Scott. "He needs to be in a sterile environment, no visitors unless in a HAZMAT suit, or unless they have a healing factor" Beast said pushing everyone out of the room with the exception of Elixir. "Logan is very weak right now. And all of Angel's blood is going to have to focus on the blood poisoning. He can't handle being getting any worse. I will more then likely need Josh to stay near him at all times. I am going to put them into a critical care room" Beast finished. He walked down to his lab with Emma, Scott and Wire.
"I think I am going to go give Laura some help" Wire said. She turned back toward the detention cells and left the others.
"Cyclopes, I have a location" Laura said walking out of the brig. She stopped and looked to the floor. "What happened to Logan" Laura asked.
"Ms. Kinney don't worry he is in the best of hands, he'll survive. Emma said walking back to the brig. "You said you had a location, where is it and how soon can we get in there?"
"He is being held in the arctic. I have the exact coordinates. We can leave as soon as we have a team together" X said.
He looked around the dark empty space. There was nothing but darkness, cold unyielding depressing dark. But Mindfreak wasn't the type to roll around in self-pity. No he was the kind of guy who made himself happy when he was surrounded by depressing crap. But now was not the time to twiddle thumbs. He turned to his left and willed a torch to flare to life. The flame lit up the chamber and Mindfreak took in his surroundings. The chamber had a high ceiling supported by large metal rafters. The walls were stone, and had condensation dripping down. Mindfreak stopped and listened. He could hear what sounded like someone slamming themselves against a wall. He also heard a voice in the distance. He recognized the voice but couldn't place a face or name to it. He grabbed the torch off the wall and started toward the voice. As he walked he could feel the stone floor vibrate in sync with the slamming sound. Mindfreak could see two more torches burning in the distance. Once he was close enough he could see a small figure of a girl fall to the floor, so he picked the pace up to a run. The girl got up, turned around and pressed her back against what looked like a wall. Mindfreak saw the wall move outward and the girl fell again. He could now hear and understand what the girl was saying.
"Gradden if you can hear me please hurry the hell up and help me" the girl yelled into the air. She got up and repeated the process again, only this time she noticed Mindfreak in the distance. "Get your ass over here" She yelled at him.
He realized that it was Tuesday that had been yelling the whole time. "Tuesday what are you doing" Mindfreak asked running up to her.
"Trying to keep HIM behind this door" Tuesday said. She tensed up when she heard the air rushing up to the door. Mindfreak put his shoulder up against the door as well. Both were knocked to the floor by an impossible amount of force. Sound of the door being hit was followed by the sound of the metal bending outward, at the top left corner. Black smoke started to come out in wisps, and the 10 inch thick sliding lock bar was bent. "If you don't concentrate on fortifying this door we are never going to see the outside world again" Tuesday said. She wiped blood from her chin and got up against the door again.
"I beat him once and I will do it again. But if he comes any closer to getting out then I want you to go. Get out and execute plan c." Mindfreak said. He sat on the floor with his back against the door and started to meditate. He visualized large chains crisscrossing over the door, and locking into to the wall at the four corners of the door and one crossing horizontally. Each was locked to the wall by giant padlock. Tuesday stepped back and waited for the moment of truth. They heard the sound of large booted feet hitting the ground at a run. That was the only warning they had before it slammed into the door again. Tuesday looked on in terrified awe as a one of the padlocks snapped like a toothpick. Tuesday floated up to the corner and started to repair the damage to the door. When her hand touched the door she felt a great chill run up her arm and down her spine.
"Gradden, I don't think plan c will work either. He is planning something in there. When I touched the door I could feel him try to break through using our psychic connection. We need help" Tuesday said. She floated down and started to chant. Mindfreak used the last bit of his strength to send an SOS to Wire.
"Wire if you can hear me, I don't know where I am, but Scarecrow is only hours from being released. I need all of the telepaths you can acquire on short notice" Mindfreak said to the air.
"God no" Wire said. She was sitting in the danger-room resting after a session with the team.
"What is it, did he contact you" Wail asked. He didn't need to ask. He could tell by the look on Wire's face, that what ever Mindfreak had said it was bad news.
"Yeah and we need to get all available telepaths to him now, Scarecrow is on his way out" Wire said.
"Well besides the triplets, Martha, and myself there aren't anymore telepaths. But we will help as much as we can" Ghost said. He had his hand on Wire's shoulder hoping to comfort her somewhat. "We will set up another strike team and get him back. We know the location and even got blue prints thanks to Laura" Ghost said. He turned to the rest of the team who were staring Wire and Wail. "Guys its time".
"Girls, I hate to ask you, but we need you on a field mission, and it won't be easy. If you say no that's fine" Ghost thought to the Cuckoos.
"What makes you think we would miss this fight? We're in. When do we leave" The Cuckoos thought back.
"Anole you're the boss, what do you think?" Ghost.
"Wire, Wail, Laura, and I will go with you." Vic said. "We leave in ten minutes, suite up and get ready."
Wire's team went to the locker rooms and while the others with the others stayed on the ground level. Nori was standing in the threshold of the front door watching outside. She tensed up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"What" Nori said.
"Noriko are you okay, I would have expected you to go on the rescue mission as well" Dust said. She pulled her hand away and crossed her arms.
Surge turned around to face Dust. "Vic and I had a little team captains chat a little while ago. I told him that this is one mutant that I wish had lost his powers. I also might have mentioned something about have Josh force this guy's x gene out." Surge said. She had been serious when she told Anole this. As far as she was concerned a mutant that could unwillingly take away every mutant's powers was one that didn't need powers. But that would include Elixir to an extent. "What if this guy is evil and decides he doesn't want to fix this mess. You know how bad that would be?"
"I can understand that, but at the same time, that would go against everything being an X-Man is all about. We aren't supposed to kill, although they have been pretty lax on that rule lately, and in extension, is it really our place to decide whether or not a mutant should keep his powers. We didn't do that to Kevin when he accidentally hurt Laurie. We wanted to help him, which is what we should do for this mutant." Dust said. "I would hug you but I know that it would make you uncomfortable." Dust said. She turned and walked to the stairs to go to up to her room.
Mindfreak backed away from the door. It still had two of the chains in place. But the top left corner and the bottom right were bent out, leaving a small opening. And that was all that Scarecrow needed. Smoke poured out of the two openings and started to form in to the shape of a slim young man. He was about 6' feet with shaggy dark blond hair. He had the eyes of a great white shark, black as night. He smiled and there was blood dripping down from his mouth. His cloths were tattered and punctured. Mindfreak could see blood pouring out of the holes in his cloths.
"You stuck me in an iron maiden. You bitch! And then on top of that you had a fire flowing through the top at all times. You sadistic bitch! I should kill you but I think I will play with you for a little bit, and then when I get bored I will take over this body and continue my work in the outside world. So lets get started." Scarecrow said. He turned to the door and raised his hand to it. The door bulged outward and the metal started to screech from all of the stress. The padlocks gave way and door was ripped off of its hinges. It floated up above their heads and hovered. The door dropped down on top of them. Scarecrow telekinetically spread his molecules out and let them pass through the molecules of the door. Mindfreak did the same. After the dust settled both men were stared across the space between them at the other.
"I would hope you are going to put up a better fight, then this. And I also hope that you remember that you don't have any of your old powers. You only have the powers that I have." Mindfreak said. He concentrated and sent out a telepathic dart. It hit Scarecrow dead on. He started to fall to the ground but caught himself at the last minute. Scarecrow grabbed Mindfreak with his telekinesis, and slammed him into the ground.
"You're right, I have access to all of your powers, and I can use them to the full extent. Now lets see how creative I can get with them." Scarecrow said. He gestured toward Mindfreak and as Gradden got up the skin was flayed from his muscle. Mindfreak screamed and fell back down. Mindfreak willed his skin to grow back and felt the process start.
"I don't think so." Scarecrow said. He walked up to Mindfreak and pointed a finger at him. Electricity started to crackle and spark around his hand. "You see, I can will your telekinesis to form electricity. I wonder what other elements your telekinesis can imitate? Do you think I could get fire out of it?" Scarecrow let loose a bolt of telekinetic lightning. It hit Mindfreak square in the chest, and flowed throughout his extremities. Mindfreak forced his leg to kick out and connect with Scarecrow's leg. The charge left Mindfreak and went back into Scarecrow. He fell beside Mindfreak and started to fade in and out.
Mindfreak throw Scarecrow back into the chamber with his t.k. and made a force field to substitute for the doors. As Scarecrow got up and tried to break back out, Mindfreak started to reform the doors. He imagined the doors made out of the strongest metal he knew, adamantium, he then put sliding locks on the outside that were made out of adamantium. He then made a cage door come down in front of the chamber doors. Mindfreak sat down and started to meditate. He branched out with a small bit of telepathy to feel around for his surroundings. When he did he felt the LSD shoot up through his veins. Mindfreak shut down his telepathy and fell back into his own head. His last thought was that the only way to keep Scarecrow down would be to stay high on the LSD or to have himself killed. Neither of which was an option. So he started to plan.