Chapter 7: Cooperation
"You have to tell me who killed them!" Pietro is losing his cool and is not getting anything out of this, this.. A knock on the door startles him but before he can react, the door is kicked in by a blue.. "Mystique!" "Pietro?" Both of them are baffled. "What are you doing here?" "I could ask the same. And who is this lovely lady?" "She'll tell you herself, won't you?" Dr. Lovely is positively shaking in her chair. She thought she had seen it all, but this creature looks alarming. She stutters and cannot form a coherent sentence so Pietro fills in the story. Mystique's yellow eyes are glowing with anger. "I'll get your father. He will be thrilled to meet you." Dr. Lovely almost faints at the thought of this boy's father.
"Magneto, you need to come at once!" Not used to being commanded for a very long time, he responds rather violently by causing the file cabinets to jump. "Not now Mystique! You should know how important this is." "Not as important as my news." His outburst doesn't faze her and can't even keep her from smiling very broadly. Magneto is extremely puzzled. "What is it?" "You better come and see for yourself."
"What can be so important that you take me away from my investigation of the archives?" She doesn't answer. Magneto has a strong mind to return to his task, but natural curiosity stops him. Knowing Mystique as a levelheaded partner must mean this is serious, but nothing could have prepared him for the sight of this. Mystique makes the introductions and, before he knows it, his only son is in his arms.
They cannot retrieve the names of the agents responsible from Dr. Lovely. She really doesn't know, however, she does provide them with other important information. The first group, a small test group, of mutants will have chips —installed is the word she uses, which causes Magneto to install a paperclip into her arm— in them that very same night at a military base some miles away. Time to move. Pietro may have the honors of killing Dr. Lovely and raises her into the air by creating a real cyclone as Magneto keeps her tied to her chair with a steel cable. A perfect cooperation. Soon she is so high up in the air that they can't hear her shrieks anymore. The moment she is about to crash into the ground to her inevitable death, the chair keeps hovering in the air.
"What's this?" Pietro doesn't understand what's happening. Neither do the others until one of the other mutants —who had all come to watch the spectacle, not that it was easy to miss— is identified as the cause. "What the hell? He should be on our side, right?" "Hello Erik, Pietro, Mystique." The mutant nods politely to all of them. "Charles. I might have known." "I've been looking for Pietro the past few minutes. It seems I've come just in time to see him use his skills in a more murderous way." "This woman is responsible for these horrific experiments. You really believe she should live?" "Killing her will not solve anything." "Doing nothing in your enclosed precious school doesn't either."
They continue arguing for quite a while until a temporary cease-fire is declared. Rescuing the trapped mutants at the military base should have their undivided attention. A teleport collects Charles and Hank, who are not amused that it is just the two of them but their presence is mostly on Magneto's terms. They do want to assist; Hank has already tried to stop these measures in every legal way possible, perhaps it is time for a different, illegal, approach and Charles wants to keep an eye on Magneto, but more importantly his son. Hopefully Pietro will return to the school where he belongs after this unfortunate adventure. Charles thinks Dr. Lovely has had her punishment but nobody agrees with him and she is left alone, still tied up, for the emergency services to find.
Standing close to the base, but still hidden in the forest, they devise a plan. The mutants, some 10 to 15 of them, are in the very middle of the camp. They are kept in separate chambers and monitored from all sides. The chips will be implanted in their upper arms which makes them easy to scan and access. It will contain all relevant information about them, whether it are medical files or criminal records. Above all it is a safety measure; an effort to control a dangerous group. They need to attack various points in order to reach and rescue all of them. They divide the roles: Charles will assist and control wherever it is most necessary from a distance, Mystique will cause mayhem and confusion by assuming high ranked officials, Hank will pretend to belong to the medical staff, Pietro will either run to assist or create new storms to break through walls, Magneto shall bend all metal to his will, and the others will split up in various groups attacking from all sides. The teleport will create bewilderment by removing soldiers and officers alike to various locations. "The moon, for all I care," Magneto had answered when asked where to.