Erik stood nervously waiting outside the mansion. It was a huge building, which made Erik feel a little uneasy. How where they supposed to find one mutant in a building like that? "They don't have many guards." Raven said, her form flickering to her usual blue one. "I saw 5."
"They could have more elsewhere." Erik retorted, getting a glare in answer. Not wanting an argument about Raven's guess, Erik didn't say anything more on the answer. He'd never been wrong before anyway and Erik didn't know why he was questioning her. Except he did. Because it was Charles, not some faceless, nameless mutant there.
"What are we going to do?" Raven asked, causing Erik to frown.
"Only 5, it's a small amount." Erik didn't like it. 5 men, it just seemed too easy.
"Don't question it bud." Logan growled and Erik could feel the other mutant's metal claws tipping Logan's knuckles.
"We can't risk them hurting Charles if we're wrong." Raven replied, getting a growl from Logan. Thankfully he dropped the matter.
Erik as silent for a moment before leading the way back to the plane Hank had designed. It was similar to a small jet with a built in stealth setting, something that Hank had tried explaining to them once before with little success. Usually Erik would have Azazel teleport them places but that only ever worked when there were a few of them. Right now, it seemed all the mutants Erik knew had come to help.
"Azazel." Erik said, motioning for the red mutant to come over. "I need you and Logan to disable the soldiers inside. Quietly." The last part was added unnecessary, seeing as Erik had already made it clearer to the mutants they couldn't make their presence known.
"What are we going to do?" Alex asked, a little put out about not going inside. Erik could see that the younger mutants were riled about what had happened to Charles, he was too, especially about Charles not allowing them to help. The difference between him and them, though, was that he was capable of keeping a level head. They were not.
"Stay put and if there's any trouble come and help." Erik replied, standing up to follow Azazel and Logan.
"That's not fair." Sean jumped to his feet, followed closely by the others'.
"We can't risk being seen and any more than necessary will bring unwanted attention." Erik growled but the others' just looked at him, refusing to move.
"You won't be any help to the Professor if you get yourselves noticed. Stay put." Logan gave the mutants a glare, causing Angel to back up a little. Unsurprisingly the others' didn't move.
"We're going in." Darwin stated, causing Erik to glare at him.
"You'll need me." Hank interrupted before Erik could say anything. "If Charles is injured you'll need me."
Erik sighed but nodded, knowing he couldn't argue with Hank's logic. "Fine, but no one else. Stay put unless something goes wrong." There were grumbles of complaint but what worried Erik the most was that Raven was silent. That didn't bode well for Erik's plan but there wasn't much he could do about it. Not when they needed to get to Charles.
…
Logan and Azazel went one way while Hank and Erik went another. They had no idea where Charles might be but Hank said it was most likely the labs were on the ground floor. It made Erik even angrier at the thought of Charles on one of the tables. The mansion wasn't anything like Erik expected. It was more like a house, albeit an unlived in, old, expensive house, but it definitely wasn't what Erik thought a scientist would conduct experiments.
It was eerily silent as Erik and Hank made their way down the back stairs. There was an elevator on each floor, making Erik frown as he passed them. Azazel had made sure to teleport them to the top floors of the house, so as to avoid meeting anyone who might raise the alarm. This meant they had to go down a number of steps, all of which creaked with disuse. Each time one step creaked, Erik would tense up, waiting for someone to come out and attack them.
Erik didn't get nervous, he didn't get panicked but right then he was because the possibility of being found to soon could very well mean the death of Charles. Something which he wasn't about to let happen. "This is the ground floor." Hank whispered, motioning to the front door. "Where do you think everyone is?" Erik shrugged, sincerely hoping Logan and Azazel had found any soldiers that might be lurking on the floor.
The two mutants walked through the ground floor levels, coming up empty in each room. They hadn't found anyone. "Azazel had the right place didn't he?" Hank asked, sounding a little defeated and Erik frowned because if they weren't in the right place then Erik didn't know where they might find Charles.
"It has to be." He replied, looking around the room they were currently standing in. It looked a lot like a library and Erik wondered who owned this place because whoever it was must be very rich.
A loud bang made both mutants start as the doors to library flung open. The man standing there was holding a gun, which Erik managed to bend easily enough. That didn't stop the man, though, as he came straight at them. Erik was just about to fling the man across the room, using the metal on the man, when Hank jumped in front of their would-be attacker and flung him across the room. The resulting crash made Erik wince. There would be no way they would go unnoticed after that.
…
As soon as Azazel had disappeared with Logan, Erik and Hank, Raven jumped to her feet. "We're going in."
"Erik said to stay here." Angel hissed but Raven ignored her.
"There's a back door around the side of the building. If you want to stay, stay. But I'm ging to help Charles." Raven stated, getting murmured agreements from the others.
Raven led them around the back of the house, keeping in the shadows even though there were no lights on inside the mansion. The back door was just like she'd left it after going in to scope out the mansion for Erik. Thankfully it was still locked. "Where do we start?" Sean asked, his voice low as Darwin slowly closed the door behind them.
They were in the kitchen. "Try to find the Professor." Alex answered, going to push the kitchen door open. The last thing any of them had expected, however, was to hear a crash coming from the front of the house.
"What was that?" Darwin asked as Raven started towards the door. The answer came soon enough as a group of men suddenly appeared in front of the kitchen door. They took one look at the 5 mutants standing in the kitchen before lifting the guns up to shoot.
Alex didn't waste a second as he blasted them using his mutation, knocking two to the ground as Sean opened his mouth to screech, causing the men to drop the weapons to the ground so as to cover their ears. Raven ran past them, pushing the men out of the way as she did so just as Logan appeared at the door. "Thought we told you to stay put." Raven shrugged in answer as another group of men came, following Logan.
The older mutant turned, flashing his claws out as the men came at him. One made a shot, hitting Logan in the shoulder. Logan grunted a little but otherwise he didn't stop moving, even as another bullet his hi stomach. This caused Logan to stop for a moment as the bullet pushed itself out of his chest. When it had, Logan ran at the man who had shot him, plunging his metal claws into the mans' chest. Raven didn't stick around any longer, running blindly in the opposite direction. She needed to find Charles.
…
The noises from the other parts of the house were getting louder and Mark was starting to panic. Nothing was going as planned. No one was meant to come here, no one was even meant to know about this place. Charles was still lying unconscious on the metal table, the surgical equipment scattered around. Blood was coating his step-sons' neck and a metal rod was half sticking out of the incision in Charles' neck. It was meant to have gone all the way in, to stop the brain waves that signalled Charles' power. Mark knew it would work to stop the telepathy. Stop his step-son from being able to control people with a thought, stop him from hearing the thoughts.
Ignoring the sounds from above and the nervous looks from the scientists in the room, Mark pushed the surgeon out of the way. He needed to finish what he'd started. The metal rod wasn't overly big but it needed to be inserted into a specific part of the brain, to press down on the part where Charles' telepathy came from in order to shut it off. The process was a delicate one, one slip up could kill Charles and Mark didn't want that. He wanted the boy to suffer, not die. The surgeon's hands were shaking, his eyes darting back towards the door where the noises had increased considerably. Mark couldn't rust him to do this, he would have to.
The blood dripping from the incison in Charles' neck was starting to coat the metal and it slipping in Marks' fingers until he got a better grip of it. Charles shuddered as the metal rod was inserted further into the boys' body but he didn't regain consciousness. A shame in Marks' opinion but it didn't matter. The pain would be the same, whether conscious or not. Of that Mark was sure.
This chapter got a little away from me so I'm going to split into two parts so as to not let the chapter get too long. Also, for the last part I have no knowledge of medical procedures and everything written was made up in my mind so if it is wrong in any way I apologise but it's fiction anyway so…..
As always please review and hope you enjoyed