34. Acquisitions
Inside the Danger Room under the mansion, Miguel and Justine were in the middle of an obstacle course. Drones, electrified cargo nets, paralyzing lasers, a swing pit to where there is no getting out of, and other various traps waited to be triggered should one of them activate or come close to them. The exercise was to work as a team and both mutants were showing a strong form of unity as Justine kept their robotic enemies at a distance while Miguel took care of most of the traps.
"We so need to play the Star Wars theme when they're in there," Kurt said as he drank from a water bottle. His session was the one before the current one and he as well as Jamie were taking a well-deserved brake inside the floor observation room.
"You've seen what happens when their powers touch?" Wanda asked. "Her whips and his claws turn purple."
"Oy, and they blind ya somethin' fierce," John, or Pyro, added. "Hey Rem, how come I can't go to the new brotherhood? I've been here long enough."
"Cuz' Ah can't make sure you don't fry your ass, carrot top," Remy answered with a grin. "Remember what happened when you tried to make fried chicken?"
"Can't keep blaming me for nearly burning the kitchen down. Who ever heard of a gas stove anyway."
"Anyone with a brain, Johnny. Anyone with a brain."
A bright flash of light shot across the Danger Room as Miguel let loose an arching wave of blue energy from his claws. It tore through several rotating pillars with electrified poles on them, destroying them all and allowing both mutants an easy way past them.
Entering the observation floor, Megan and Tabitha, the only ones not in their uniforms, stopped by as they gave Sarah a tour of the mansion. Normally, non-mutants would not be allowed below the mansion but since she was Justine's girlfriend and guest, Ororo made an exception.
"This is just incredible," Sarah said in awe as she took in the training scene before her. "So, you all train here every day?"
"Mostly," Tabitha said. "The schedule changes every few weeks to keep us on our toes so when we don't have a session; we mostly just do our own thing."
"Has Justine been in many of these…sessions?"
"Yep, and she has shown she's more than capable of being one of us if she chooses."
"You mean she could be an X-Man?"
"If she chooses to, of course," Megan told her as she stood in front of the thick Plexiglas of the room with her arms crossed. "And as long as she's here, you're more than welcome to stay with her."
With one final explosion in the training area, Miguel and Justine finished the obstacle course as Logan looked their score over. Looking over at the observation room, Justine nudged Miguel's arm and gestured with her head to the new audience members. Looking where he was indicated, he saw Megan wave at him and wearing the 'FOCK FEAR' shirt he had given her. He grinned as Justine took off to meet up with Sarah as he followed.
"Hey, you feelin' a little sleepy, mate?" John asked as he let out a yawn.
"No," Kurt yawned. "Yawns are contagious. So if you stop…"
"Wanda? Hey, wake up." Shaking her shoulder, John tried to wake the Goth girl up but she was fast asleep. "Hey, Rem, something's wrong with…Rem?"
Looking at the others in the room, John saw Remy sitting and leaning against the wall fast asleep. Kurt was the same way with his head leaning back while Tabitha fell to the floor in a heap. The last thing he saw was Sarah trying to hold Megan up as she too fell to the floor.
"Megan?" Sarah asked as she shook the pink and blue haired girl. "Megan, what's wrong?"
By this time, both Miguel and Justine were running over to the room when they saw the last of the mutants pass out. Sarah was the only one inside not asleep as she tried to revive the others.
"Sarah?" Justine yelled as she reached the thick glass. "Sarah, honey, what's happening?"
"I don't know. One minute they were fine and the next they're passed out."
"Are they breathing?" Miguel asked as he tried to open the door. "S#%t, the door won't open. Sarah, try the door from your side!"
Leaving Megan on the floor, Sarah made her way to the door and tried to get it to open. "It won't move. It has a
switch to move it but it's not lit."
"Move, I'll break the damn thing down." Forming her whips, Justine lashed out at the Plexiglas but left no mark.
"It won't work, Miguel told her. "It's designed to keep us from accidently hurting whoever's in there."
Just then, the door to leading to the locker rooms opened and in stepped Eric with a filtered mask over his nose and mouth. Miguel and Justine yelled at him to open the door when two purple armored Executioners stepped into view. Not knowing the danger she was in, Sarah called for him to help her open the door, not hearing the other two yelling for her to try to get away. Without knowing what was happening, a hand wrapped around Sarah's neck as a sharp spike punctured her from the back. The bloody tip of the weapon emerged from where Sarah's heart was as her eyes grew wide with Justine being the last person she saw as all life left her.
"Sarah!" Justine yelled as her girlfriend's body fell limply to the floor.
"Eric!" Miguel yelled as he formed his black claws and tried to slice his way in. "You son of a-"
"Nuh, uh, my friend," Eric said as he moved to where Megan was and placed the spike of his tonfa at her throat. "You wouldn't want any harm to come to her, do you?"
Miguel stared daggers at the Italian.
"Sheathe the claws," Eric told him.
Doing as he was told, Miguel dissipated his claws as Justine knelt beside him and cried over Sarah's death. If he could, he would burst through the thick glass and kill Eric right on the spot. He then became panicked when the two soldiers picked Megan up by the arms and carried her towards the door.
"Hey, hey wait," Miguel yelled as he banged on the glass. "Get away from her!"
"Just for the record," Eric said with an evil grin. "I only need the dust she produces; you can have whatever's left over, if there's anything left that is. You see, you don't need to be born with the X-Gene to gain mutant powers. All you need is the proper equipment to reverse engineer what you have and any normal human can have your, quote-unquote, gifts. Unfortunately, psychic powers cannot be duplicated to control others, which is why her dust is important to me. If I control the dust, I control whoever I put the dust on. And once I can do that, it will be the end for all mutant kind. And should that not work, I'm sure Noi could prove useful since she is in fact a so-called…second mutation."
"Let them go, Eric," Miguel ordered.
"I swear, I'm gonna kill you!" Justine yelled.
"Not before you take a nice long nap." Pulling out a small square device, the Italian man flipped a red cover up and pressed the button underneath. At once, a clear gas was released into the Danger Room from the air vents. "I would have let Sarah live, but the sleep gas does not work on non X-Gene carriers.
As the gas filled the room, Miguel and Justine felt its effects and became extremely drowsy.
"Miguel, I want you to know something before I take my leave. I could easily kill every mutant here, but where's the fun in that? I would much rather prove humanity is far superior to mutant kind and I will do anything to wipe you all out in one swift move of genocide. If you want to have that little rematch we talked about earlier, feel free to come after me. Just be aware, I know something you don't. Something no one knows except for me." He took a knee and leaned closer to the glass. "Last time, I made it where Cerebro could not pick up your mutant signature and had an easy time getting that little pointy eared freak of yours to fall into my hands. I won't have to do that again should we meet after this."
Miguel wanted to yell his usual profanity at the faux mutant Eric but couldn't as darkness took him over.
"F#$K YOU!" Miguel yelled as he regained consciousness in the Danger Room some time later.
"My sentiments exactly," Logan told him as he helped Kurt to his feet. "We've been played and I'm lookin' for some payback."
Rubbing his head, Miguel looked around to see who all was there besides the ones prior to Eric's betrayal. "How long have we been out?"
"About two hours as far as I can tell."
"John, do me a favor and make sure that a$$hole burns for this," Wanda told the Australian. "Damn gas leaves a wicked headache."
Rubbing his head, John sat with his head against the wall behind him. "Don't have to ask twice, luv. Forget original recipe, goin' extra crispy on his ass."
"You're just lucky we came back when we did," Jubilee told them.
"Even luckier Kit Kat's cards got overcharged," Marie said as she handed icepacks to Remy and Kurt.
"Where's Justine?" Miguel asked while getting to his feet.
"Medbay," Kitty told him. "She was the first one up and rushed Sarah there. It…it was too late."
It didn't take long for Miguel to make his way to the medbay, it wasn't like he was a stranger to the place, and found Justine crying over the body of Sarah in one of the rooms. She had unzipped the top portion of her uniform and let it hang loosely around her waist, leaving only a white tank top on, as she held the dead girl's hand. Miguel didn't know what to say and could only think if it weren't for them succumbing to the effects of the sleeping gas, she may have been able to heal Sarah in time.
Taking him out of his thoughts, Logan came up behind Miguel and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We're forming a strike force to go in after them, kid. They took the X-Jet so we could track them to whatever trap they have set. Only a few are going. We don't leave our own to the enemy and we don't let actions like this go unpunished. If you want to go with me, Kurt, and Piotr-"
"I'm in," Miguel told him. "But Eric's mine."
"No, he's mine," Justine said as she stood from Sarah's bedside. "Miguel, stay away from him and get Megan. I want Eric's head."
"Then get your s#$t together now," Logan told them. "The X-Copter left five minutes ago."
Within the X-Jet, Eric paced back and forth in front of Megan who was tied down to a seat. It didn't matter how much she struggled as she couldn't get any slack from her bonds, not that it would do any good with two more Executioner guards behind her having their weapons trained on her.
"Make it easy on yourself, Eric," Megan said as she continued to try and free herself. "Let me go and maybe Logan won't kill you for taking the jet. And Miguel…he'll do even worse to you."
"You would like that, wouldn't you?" Putting a stop to his pacing, Eric took a seat next to her and leaned forward. "You people are so easy to fool. Tell you I'm a mutant, show off a little bit, rig a few lines, cells, computers, plant gas canisters right under your noses, and to top it all off, make you think your boyfriend's dead by erasing him from your mutant finding machine and making you fall for my charms."
As he let a grin overtake his features, Megan spat in his face and was only rewarded with a chuckle.
"I came to expect as much," he said as he pulled out a cloth and wiped his face clean. "Just so you know, I have nothing against Cortez. He's the same as all the other mutants out there regardless if he's supposedly the next form of mutation, and I will kill every last one of your kind."
"And what makes you think you can?"
"Simple, the psychic powers I managed to give myself are only telekinetic in nature. Actually controlling the will of others is impossible to reproduce without a mind altering substance for me to produce and use as a connection from my mind to others. Once I have a sample of your dust and genetics, I will be able to create that effect and have a way to spread my will to those in power, in turn, making sure every government out there deems mutants as a plague and declares it time to sanitize them from existence."
Shaking her head, Megan scoffed. "You're insane, you know that? How many others tried the same thing, to commit genocide only to be stopped? And what makes you think I'll help you by making my dust? I'll-"
"You'll cooperate or this will end badly for a certain someone."
On his words, another seat spun around with a sleeping Noi strapped down in it. Megan's breath caught in her throat as Eric held a tonfa to her chest and unsheathed its spike.
"You will sit through our experiments and cooperate freely or this precious little freak doesn't wake up…ever."