Chapter 8
"Are we sure about this?" Erik asked as Logan pulled up in front on the old brick building. "I mean, he's a child. With no training of any kind."
"He's a smart kid. Trust me, he can do this." he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Can I quote you on that?" Marie smiled from the seat beside him, reaching over to rub his shoulder.
"You can shut up." He turned to face the rest of the team. "In and out, quick and quiet." he grunted "It's going to be fine."
"Sure. We're just approaching some weird kid, bundling him into a van, and crossing sate lines." Victor snorted and straightened his collar. "But if we get caught, we'll just tell the cops it's for the greater good."
"Why do you always-"
"I'm just saying that-"
"Yeah, but we agreed we wouldn't phrase it-"
"Oh, I'm so damn sorry for being realistic-"
"You will be sorry when I-"
"Victor's right." Marie interjected and he grinned. "And we should also just grab him and go already, because we've been out her for a minute. I'll be surprised if someone hasn't already reported our vehicle as suspicious."
"Guys!" Hank yelled, flinching from previously empty seat beside him. There sat a dark haired boy with red sunglasses and a rather confused look on his face, John's arm around his shoulders. The group sat in silence for a long moment, waiting with bated breath to see how he would react to his new surroundings.
"John?" Logan breathed, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.
"Yeah, man?"
"What did you do?"
"I got the kid." he said as if it were perfectly obvious. Of course it was, but no one had expected it go happen so suddenly. They also hadn't expected the boy to react so calmly to his abduction.
"You didn't just..." Charles frowned and looked from John to the boy and back again. "I mean, did you just...pop in and-"
"No! I asked – I'm sorry, what's your name again?"
"It's, uh, Scott."
"Right, right. I asked Scott here if he wanted to come with us on this adventure, and he said yes." John smiled at the group, their expressions still quite concerned and adjusted his hat. "So, we going or what?"
"Wait, what?" Erik asked after another long silence. "When did you even-"
"Oh, I thought you guys would take your sweet time talking it out, and I knew at least one argument would break out, so I thought I'd save us all some time and nab the kid while that went on."
"So...he explained the whole...situation to you, Scott?"
"Something about using my laser eyes to stop some genocidal maniac?"
"That about sums it up." Logan grunted and gunned the engine, putting the orphanage behind them. "So,kid?" Scott looked from Victor's hands to the rear view mirror where he met Logan's eyes. "You sure you're okay just leaving this place?"
"You mean that super awesome dump full of assholes? Yeah, it's fine."
"I like this kid." Victor grinned.
"Where exactly are we going?" Scott asked and fiddled with the leg of his glasses.
"It's a small island near Madagascar."
"I don't have a passport."
"Neither do we."
"Yeah." Fred smiled. "But we don't technically exist, do we?"
"There's that."
"Wow." Scott leaned his head against the van wall and closed his eyes.
XXXXXXXXX
"So, what's the plan?" Scott asked from the back of the Blackbird and fiddled with the straps on his flight suit. "I mean, do we just pop in and zap the guy, or..?"
"Not exactly." Hank called back to him and put the Bird on auto pilot. He stood and rolled his shoulders, grimacing when the stitching of his flight suit creaked a little. "We should enter the base quietly. I'll go in with Logan and Victor first and take care of the perimeter guards."
"You're not wearing body armour?" Raven asked Victor.
"It only slows me down." he grinned and stood by the bay doors, readying himself for the drop. She stared, mouth wide, and Marie leaned in to whisper in her ear.
"Are you good?"
"I'm feeling some unexpected things."
"Next," Charles sighed and continued in Hank's place "Fred, Chris, Marie, and Erik will follow and break into the main laboratory, clearing out any technicians and any extra security. Closely followed by Raven, John, and you."
"We all have our weapons?" Chris looked around at their race's best chance of survival.
"Frag grenades filled with carbonadium shards." Fred patted the grenade belts slung over his enormous shoulders.
"Dart guns filled with my blood." Marie checked and re-holstered her weapons - five in total – and turned to Victor as he tucked a lead case into his breast pocket.
"Terrigen Crystals."
"Why do you get the cool alien shit?" John frowned.
"Because if I mess up, my healing factor should slow the effects long enough for me to finish the mission."
"He's right." Marie tightened her ponytail. "They're beyond toxic, and they kill people like us almost instantly."
"And how precisely did you get your hands on them?" Erik raised an eyebrow at her.
"Well, long story short I stole them from a weird cult."
"Aren't all cults weird?"
"Yeah, but these guys are all superpowered."
"Wouldn't that put us on the same side? Why did you have to steal them?"
"Because they're not mutants, they're something else. Their powers come from the crystals."
"That is weird."
"Told you." She shrugged and the jet slowed itself to a halt over the jungle.
"So, everyone knows what they're doing?" Charles asked from his seat at the control panel and they all nodded. He opened the bay doors and the first wave disappeared into the dark jungle below. "Right. Let me know when you're inside and I'll run psychic interference."
"Don't forget the disruptor." Raven pointed to the three switches wired into the console.
"I know, mother." Charles smiled. "Don't talk to strangers. And if one tries to strike up a conversation, I'll hit them with Hank's shock wave thing." He clapped his hands. "Better get going."
"Stay safe." Marie patted Charles' shoulder and repelled down with her team, leaving the others behind. Raven glanced over her shoulder at John and Scott as they stood by the cockpit and bit her lip before turning back to Charles.
"So," she looked down at her feet "I know you have a lot to say to me, and it's going to take time, but-"He took her hands in his and she looked up to find him smiling at her.
"We'll talk about it when we get home." She smiled back and squeezed his hands.
"Okay, are we good to...oh." John stood awkwardly behind Raven and shook his head. "Sorry."
"No, we're good." Raven released Charles' hands and turned to the others. "We were just saying our last goodbye."
"Because we're all going to die in there." Scott nodded.
"Yeah."
"That checks out."
"My buddies all got fun teams, and I'm going I there with these two downers." John turned to Charles. "Can you believe this?"
"I know. This whole thing is a mess, but we've come this far. Speaking of which," he touched his temple "You better get going."
The scene on the ground was a mess. Essex's experiments didn't make breaching the base an easy task, but Logan and Victor cut a clear enough path for the second team.
Inside, the coast was clear save for a handful of larger, stronger mutates who seemed more determined to survive the skirmish, causing Fred to run out of his usually abundant patience and crush its skull with a cry.
"Fell better?" Victor asked.
Fred simply nodded and continued to the vault door at the end of the corridor, tearing at the hinges with his great fingertips until the door hung limp in its frame.
"You know I could've just switched it off, right?" Chris sighed and Fred smiled.
"My way's more fun." Before he had a chance to remove the door completely, it slammed back against him and sent him flying into the wall.
When Marie saw Essex standing in the doorway, it took every ounce of courage she had not to break down. Instead, she channelled her rage into telekinetically ripping his lab to pieces and throwing them at him, burying all sorts of medical equipment deep in his body. She knew if wouldn't matter in the long run, but God it felt good.
"Did you really think you could enter my-" he began to growl, only to be cut off as a red beam sliced his face in half.
The halves of his head flopped to either side a moment before lifting back up and knitting themselves back together.
"I'm sorry." Scott quipped while trying not to throw up. "Was that rude?"
The distractions were enough for Erik to collect the door and launch it at Essex, firing him backwards the same as Essex had done to Fred.
Chris entered the lab first and disabled the rest of the security systems, shutting down and defences Essex might have up his sleeve and eliminating the possibility of him calling for backup when the going got tough.
"What? No 'make yourselves at home'? No hors d'oeuvres?" Fred lunged forward and smacked Essex in the face, receiving a swift blow in retaliation. But it didn't matter, because the damage had been done – a grenade had been lodged in the side of Essex's head, and when it exploded it took him quite by surprise and made him collapse against the wall. "We come all the way out here, and this our welcome." he chuckled. "Some people."
Essex reached for Fred and Raven sprang at him, spinning hard and fast and dropping him on his ass in the centre of the lab. There, surrounded, he sneered up at his assailants and finally realised why it was that it had taken him so long to detect their presence on his little island.
"You brought a telepath." In an instant, he was on his feet and forming a plan of attack, trying desperately to cloak his thoughts from their unseen accomplice. "They'll burn with the rest of you."
"I doubt it, mate." Chris shrugged and indicated the now defunct control panels. "No one's coming to save you."
"It's just us." Logan growled and clenched his fists, extending his claws as Victor extended his own beside him.
"And we really don't care for you." Victor smiled and stepped forward.
Essex was too fast for him and let out an array of tentacle-like offshoots in all directions, bowling over several members of the team as others barely made it out of his way.
Hank bent over backwards and flipped away before tossing a shattered monitor into Essex's face. Essex reached for John's throat, just too late to catch him, and Victor took advantage of the situation to jam a Terrigen Crystal into the solidified arm. Essex shrank back and cried out in pain – a sensation that was most alien to him.
Scott blasted him again, and this time he sprawled to his feet. He almost missed the fire spreading in his back as half a dozen darts snapped beneath his weight.
He lay motionless for a few moments, so that John even asked if it was over. They only noticed too late the black pool on the dark stone floor creeping out in all directions to swallow them.
Fred slammed another grenade into the floor at his feet and leapt back as the fluid enveloped it and quivered.
"Is it better or worse if he's gooey?" he asked innocently and Essex reformed, clutching his head. "Never mind." He stepped closer again, shoving a third grenade into Essex's open mouth and clamping his jaw shut to contain the explosion.
"I would really hate to find out we were only making him mad." Scott breathed and raised a hand to his visor.
"I wouldn't worry about that." Erik said and moulded the broken steel door into a bowl of sorts, capturing Essex inside. "Give him everything you've got." he called.
Scott focussed a beam directly at Essex as the others all emptied their munitions into the ball just before Erik sealed it.
A shrill scraping sound filled the room, closely followed by the clatter of explosions, and no one dared speak in the silence that followed. They didn't dare dream it was over.
Erik released the ball and its sided melted away, spreading across the floor. Essex leapt free and swiped at Erik, knocking him out.
"Shit, shit, shit." John mumbled and teleported out of his reach as Raven launched herself at his once again. "Why is he not dead, man?"
"How should I know?" she yelled and Essex flung her into the wall, knocking the wind out of her. He stood over her a moment and clutched his head, fighting Charles hard.
His body was the worse for wear after the barrage, but his regenerative power was clearly working overtime. Hank, Logan, and Victor all shared the thought that with any luck he would be weak enough to tear apart. But since when were they lucky?
They rushed him simultaneously and slammed him into the wall, but he made quick work of them with his new found rage and Scott was almost too afraid to blast him backwards into the control panel.
Essex had no time to recover before John grabbed him and teleported him into the console as Chris fired it up, hoping against hope that it would fry his natural 'human' electric circuitry – if Essex even still had any, that was.
But it could be that easy. Essex backhanded them both in one swift motion and set his sights on Marie, reaching out a tendril and pulling her to him.
She hung helpless in the air, her eyes filling with tears at the thought that she would end up just like last time – in chains and at the mercy of the most vile being ever to darken the face of the earth.
"I know what you are, child." Essex grinned and held her close. "I can see it in your mind." His eyes locked on hers and he laughed when a tear rolled down her cheek. "You and I are going to create such beautiful things together."
"Not again." she breathed and wrenched an arm free. "Do it!" she cried and the console erupted in a blinding red flash as she punched a shaking fist into his rippling chest, planting the last stray grenade right where his heart would've been.
Essex roared and flailed, dropping her as he struggled to fight the assault.
She crawled hurriedly away towards where Logan had last lain, but he was nowhere to be found. Nor were Victor or Hank. No Raven, no Scott. No Fred, John or Chris. No Nathaniel Essex.
The ruined console, among the fire damage, seemed to be covered in dried tar that crumbled when she threw a stone at it.
She stood in the centre of the laboratory under the broken ceiling, utterly alone save for the birds, snakes, and spiders which seemed rather startled by her presence.
Almost as startled as Marie was when Kurt appeared in his customary puff of smoke.
"What's going on? Are you hurt?" he asked concerned, tilting his head at her scuffed flight suit and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "The Professor just put this room in my head and told me to get you." He looked around the lab and frowned. "How did you even get here? And what happened to your hair?"
"Just take me home." she sighed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt the faint pull and opening them again only when she smelled the familiar scent of the Professor's office.
"Welcome home." She heard the smile in Charles' voice and began to cry again. Tears of joy.