Magnetic
Chapter Ten
"Reunions"
Eric and Charles finished getting dressed and shared one more kiss before once again looking at their surroundings. There was nothing but green around them. Grass, trees, plants and vegetation all thriving in the middle of the Antarctic. Neither of them could really believe it but they had witnessed weirder things.
"Which direction do you think we should start looking in first?"
Xavier closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated trying to feel if he could pick up any of their comrade's thoughts. After a few seconds he shook his head.
"I'm not one hundred percent sure Eric. I focus but I am having trouble picking up anything."
"Something with your powers?"
"No I don't think so. Maybe it's the environment or maybe I am being blocked by someone or something."
"Do you know anyone strong enough to do that?"
"No I do not. Then again I don't really know of every mutant in the world and if this person is doing this they could have been shielding themselves. If that's the case, I doubt I would even be able to pick them up with Cerebro."
They regarded each other for a moment and Eric sighed.
"I woke up in that direction so maybe we can just head further and hopefully run across the others."
"Sounds like a good idea to me."
Emma, Raven and Azazel had been walking for about an hour and had still come across none of their comrades.
"I don't see why we are wasting our time. They are most likely dead."
Emma laughed at Azazel's suggestion and shrugged.
"No their alive."
"Since you know so much where do you think they are?"
"I can't sense them. Someone is blocking me."
Raven let out a sigh of frustration and continued walking. There were so many things that were unresolved between her and Charles as well as her and Hank. She didn't know where things would stand after this but she knew she wanted to find them and knew she didn't want them to be dead. All of the sudden she heard a moaning in the distance.
"Azazel. Over there."
Azazel nodded and began to walk forward and only stopped when he heard the moaning coming from above. He teleported up to the highest tree branch and grabbed Hank before teleporting back to the ground.
"Hank!"
Raven ran towards him and put her arms around him clearly thankful to see him alive. This had also given her the renewed hope of finding Charles and Eric as well.
"Are you ok?"
It took a minute or so for Hank to full come to and he blinked several times before his gaze rested on Azazel.
"You, son of a bitch! You just left us to die!"
Azazel shrugged.
"Hank! Calm down! What happened to Charles and Eric?"
"I don't know. Last thing I remember is telling them to brace themselves."
"Maybe if we keep walking in this general direction we will find them."
Emma nodded. "I suggest we hurry. I sense that something is not right here. It'd be best if we find them before someone or something else does."
"I'm surprised Emma. Actual concern for someone else?"
"Oh come off it Raven. If I have any hope to survive it's better to be among more people…"
"Say no more. We are nothing to you but human shields."
Emma smiled. "Now you get the picture."
Eric and Charles had walked a reasonable distance before they heard voices. Magneto motioned for Charles to stop and he obliged. Both men glanced in the direction of the voices and were taken aback by what they saw. There was something that appeared to be a hybrid of a pterodactyl and a human man.
"Things just keep getting stranger and stranger here."
"Shhh."
Charles listened to his friend and directed his attention towards the new being they had discovered. He was motioning with one of his wings to a bunch of men in what appeared to be uniforms.
"Mr. Sinister wants these people found right away. He needs them for some very important testing."
The henchmen all look at each other and then back to the humanoid.
"But uh Sauron…We have been looking. Maybe they were blown up."
"I hope for your sake that's not true. You were supposed to cripple the jet to the point they would have to make an emergency landing and instead you got overzealous with the missiles and now here we are. We will not return until we have found them."
He henchmen all sighed amongst themselves and scattered in multiple directions. The humanoid called Sauron looked deep in thought and for a moment looked as if he was getting ready to run towards the direction of Charles and Eric. They were relieved when he instead took off and began flying in the opposite direction.
"Wonder who this Mr. Sinister is."
Eric nodded. "Whoever he is I'll bet anything he is the one that sent you the message about coming here. It was a set up."
"Yes but to what end?"
"Well in any case we have one thing going for us."
"Yeah. Whoever lured us here wants us alive it seems."
Before they could continue their conversation they heard a voice calling out to them.
"Eric! Charles!"
Eric turned towards the voice and was relieved to see Mystique and the others heading towards them. Raven was elated to see both men and it took her a second to register that Charles was walking.
"You can walk!"
"Seems that way. Most likely whatever allows the environment to thrive here is also allowing me to walk."
Emma rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "Can we please just get on with it. The sooner we do what we came here to do and leave the better. I can't sense a whole lot and that spells trouble."
Charles nodded. "Emma is right. Though you all should know that it was a trap. Whoever sent me that psychic message wanted to lure us here and he has people out looking for us."
Azazel laughed. "Typical."
"Why is that?"
"You hear a message and all of the sudden have to run to save the day without getting the facts first. Typical."
Charles would have responded but before he could men began shooting at them.
"Take cover!"
They all obliged and Charles looked at Eric. "Think you can use your powers to get those guns away from them?"
Eric nodded and began to concentrate. It only took a second for the shooting to stop and next Charles saw the guns were floating in front of their assailants. Xavier walked towards them and smiled.
"Now I have a few questions to ask you."
"We will not talk."
Eric concentrated harder and used his power to raise one of the guns above the henchman's head. It fired a few shots and Eric smiled. Charles smiled too and moved in closer to the man the gun was pointed at until he could whisper in his ear.
"Now I have nothing against you. Even though you just shot at us and are refusing to answer questions. My friend however...well...let's just say he's pissed off that we were shot out of the sky and were just shot at. So I would appreciate it if you would answer my questions."
The gunman nodded.
"Now who do you work for?"
"Sauron."
"And who does he work for?"
"Mr. Sinister."
"Do you know why Mr. Sinister wanted us to come here?"
"No I don't."
Eric scowled and raised the gun again.
"No wait, wait, wait. I really don't know. He sent us to shoot you out of the sky and collect you to bring to him. None of us know what he wants with you."
Charles looked at Eric and back to the henchman. He used his telepathy to look into the man's thoughts and realized he was telling the truth. Upon realizing this he motioned for Eric to release all the guns. Eric obliged but before the last gun fell he made it shoot a few more shots at the head henchman's feet. Emma laughed and walked towards them.
"So what do we do with them?"
Azazel grinned. "Leave that to me."
Before Charles or Hank could protest Azazel teleported while grabbing each henchman and in a few moments they were all gone.
Charles looked at Eric. "You know you really shouldn't let him have that much fun."
Eric was about to respond but Emma laughed. "Oh, let Azazel have his fun. After all…We are stuck here with you."
Hank looked around and sighed. "I think we should all be concentrating on how to find this Mr. Sinister."
Raven nodded in agreement. "Whatever the reason is that he wanted us to come here it can't be good."
Eric crossed his arms. "Of course you are both right. We need to quickly find this Mr. Sinister, find out what he wants and stop him if necessary."
Charles looked towards the sky. "Oh I have a feeling it will be very necessary."
A man sat at his computer and smiled. His red eyes gleamed in the darkness and he moved his hand to the control counsel in front of him. He pressed the button and began to speak.
"Sauron?"
"Yes?"
"Change of plans. Come back to base. I have new orders for you."
"Ok."
Mr. Sinister released the button and got out of his chair walking towards a window. He looked out at the jungle and closed his eyes.
Finally….I will have exactly what I need to build my army…and with the X-Men out of my way I can finally accomplish anything and everything I desire.