Toad hopped his way back out to a waiting Mystique, still in her tentative disguise as a blond, middle aged woman named Emma Grace Frost, the Spear Shard Loki had taken from Scott's room and removed to give to Toad securely in his pocket, Loki's Tiara clutched in his hand as he found her, tapping her foot, her body morphed to look as if she wore a long blue dress and matching heels.
"There you are, Herr Toad, are you ready?" Mystique asked.
"How can your teleport take us all the way to Germany?" he wondered.
"I am tied to that place. It is where I thought my son died, and where Raven expelled me from her body..." Mystique answered. "I can FEEL that place."
Toad shrugged. "Ready when you are, Wrinkles."
"Hey you two..." Power Princess said, striding up to them in her revealing black scaled armor and stilettos, the golden chain she had sported during Loki's creation of her wrapped around her torso. The massive, heavy thuds of Blob's footsteps followed behind her. Blob was just done eating a massive submarine sandwich and wore a giant circus performer like jumpsuit that exposed his arms.
"What in the world are you wearing?" Toad asked.
"Titanium alloy mesh!" Blob said. "No idea what that means, but it's actually fitting me real good! Beast made it!"
He glanced at Mystique's human form. "Who's that?"
Mystique retook her now incredibly well muscled form for a moment, her Physique granted to her by the Skull Implant attached to her forehead, before retaking the human appearance, the Implant sinking into the flesh of her forehead and disappearing.
"You continue to evolve, Mystique..." Power Princess observed. "You look like you're both going somewhere..."
"Germany. Wanna come with us?" Toad asked.
"Of course," she agreed.
"Herr Dukes, would you join us?" Mystique asked.
"Sure. Ain't never been to Germany." Blob replied.
Mystique held out her hand, and everyone took it, and reality warped around their perspective before they found themselves in the woodlands, on a hill overlooking a quaint country town. It was in the afternoon.
Mystique sat on a rock, Toad hopped to the hilltop's edge to get a better look along with Dukes, while Power Princess closed her eyes, golden light warping her armor and stilettos into a black cocktail dress and matching heels, her tiara, chain, and vambraces vanishing in that same golden light.
"Eh, not a bad town," Toad observed. "So, this is the source of the Danube, right?"
"Supposedly. Little Karst Spring near the Palace here..." Mystique answered, lower lip trembling before turning away.
"Uh, Wrinkles...one problem...me..." Toad said. There was no hiding the mutation up close, even the others at the Orphanage who were legitimately mutants stayed away for his unsettling looks.
"Hmmm...I know..."
Mystique's golden Uru Skull Implant protruded from her forehead suddenly like an erupting boil. Toad noted that unlike before, where the implant had merely looked like it was adhering to the surface of the forehead, now the implant looked like it was actually partly merged with her flesh at the sides, to the point it was difficult to tell where the flesh ended, and the Uru began.
"Uh, what are you doing?" he asked, suddenly apprehensive, remembering that Cassandra wasn't and had never actually been human at any point. Her thought processes just weren't the same. Her solutions to problems might be completely alien from his perspective.
Toad wondered if he should actually help her get in contact with this boy, she claimed was alive...but decided someone needed to keep an eye on Mystique. Besides, she had specifically asked him here because even SHE was aware she had deficiencies.
Besides, if her host really WAS as bad as Mystique claimed, then it was better to intercept him first, before she could figure out her son had survived his dunk into the Danube.
The eye sockets of the Skull Implant glowed with golden light, and a golden shimmer descended over Toad's body, and what emerged was a normal, regular looking teenage boy of ruddy complexion, messy brown hair and eyes, and a slim frame in t-shirt and jeans.
"It is only an illusion Toad. I have modified the Implant to be able to cast projections over things when I focus," Mystique explained.
"How?" Toad asked. "You couldn't do that before. And what were you talking about earlier? How did you get 'new and improved'?"
Power Princess raised her hand with a guilty look on her face.
"That might be my fault. I was showing Scott one of my abilities. It must have affected her psionically."
"Wow, the more I learn about you two, the scarier you both become..." Blob observed apprehensively.
"We ARE learning on the go, Herr Dukes, just as you are," Mystique replied in a mildly petulant huff, as the Skull implant again receded into her forehead.
"You gotta see it from my point of view, lady..." Blob said, pulling down a tree branch and just snacking on it to the surprise of the others. "Scott was the only walking nuke I ever met until I ran into you two. I mean, he's still terrifying if you really stop and think about his power, but you two are right up there, along with Ororo."
"Nobody's perfect," Princess replied somewhat sheepishly, awkwardly scratching the back of her head.
"Hey Mystique, you come up with that palatable history I talked to you about?" Toad asked.
"I've actually been giving it some thought. I was thinking, I could be a schoolteacher of some kind-" Mystique began.
"No, no, no... I mean what happened? The night you lost him."
Mystique glowered. "Raven threw him into the river out of sheer disgust because his mutation was so obvious."
"You obviously can't tell him THAT. You gotta make it sound more sympathetic..." Toad insisted, scratching his head, his tongue shooting out and catching a fly while he thought it over.
"Hmmm...how about you gave birth to him, but like, all the villagers found out he was a Mutant and came for you both, and in your panicked attempt to escape, you were both captured and thrown into the river but only you escaped it...?"
Princess glowered.
"This is a very dangerous path you tread..." she warned. "A relationship built on lies shall collapse on those same lies that were meant to hold it up."
"Princess, you got NO IDEA what it's like for a Mutant to be born with their mutation being active and obvious," Toad snapped, hopping to her angrily. "You're lucky! You can hide what you are! Someone like me and Blob, heck, even Scott to an extent? We can't."
Toad's hands clenched into fists.
"Essex called us Killcrops to our faces, once. For YEARS, I wondered what that meant," the teenager spat bitterly, the illusory face Mystique gave him twisting in anger the way his real face twisted.
"Then I meet Callisto and the Morlocks and guess what? Killcrop is what damn near everybody in the tunnels are. Mutants whose mutations are so obvious they're often killed at birth. Xavier says that means I have a Type 1 X-Gene. First generation. Everyone there is ironically the lucky ones, whose parents had a shred of humanity in them not to go through with the deed but not enough to love and keep them. Her son got what most humans who gave birth to someone like me give to someone like me, and he got it from someone who not only was his own Mom, but a mutant herself!"
Toad stared up defiantly at a now quiet Power Princess, who was trying to empathize with his perspective.
Toad was visibly shaking as he remembered all his joyless birthdays, his days of having no one except Scott or Fred to turn to. "Honestly he's better off not knowing either Raven OR Mystique! But at least Mystique wants him, despite being some sort of Psychic Lovecraftian Nightmare."
"I'm not that Lovecraftian..." Mystique muttered. "I can barely even create tentacles..."
Toad wheeled on her. "Not helping your case, Wrinkles!"
"He's kinda got a point, Misty, you're straight up Dunwich," Blob admitted.
Mystique went silent. Blob continued to snack on the branch he pulled down.
Toad turned away.
"You say honesty is part of love, and I get that, I do..." Toad said very quietly. "But so is discretion. There is no love to be found in showing so little discretion as to what the unvarnished truth will do to the kid."
He back flipped to Mystique. "So...whaddya say?" he asked her.
Mystique nodded. "Very well, Herr Toad. We'll go with your story about how I lost him. Its believable enough. Sympathetic enough, I suppose. But we still need to explain 'Emma Grace Frost'. Like I said, I was thinking of this identity being a schoolteacher. Like at Xavier's Academy, which he said he is opening soon!" Mystique suggested.
Toad rubbed his chin.
"Yeah, yeah, that might work. Charlie's gonna wanna keep you around just to study you, so of course he'll probably be willing to pretend you have actual teaching credentials...but what would you teach?" Toad wondered.
"Hmmm...firearms?"
"Try again," Toad said, deadpan.
"Hmmm...Eureka! I'll teach languages! My host knew plenty of those!" Mystique exclaimed.
Toad paused considering it. "What do you think, Fred?"
Blob snacked on another branch. "Sounds pretty solid to me..."
Princess folded her arms. "I still think honesty is ultimately the best policy...but I agree...that's the least worst lie you could tell..."
"Also, lose the accent," Toad said.
"Why?" Mystique asked.
"Think about it! You still have a thick East German accent. You don't think that'll cause some questions? If he's been in Berlin this whole time, he might find it really difficult to believe you didn't know where he was!" Toad pointed out.
Mystique paused. "Mein Gott, you're right!" Mystique said. "Hold on, let me try something..."
Mystique cleared her throat and spoke with North London accent.
"Is this better?" Mystique asked.
Toad shook his head. "Keep it simple. Less countries you went to in between, the less questions you have to answer."
"Hmmm...a New York accent then..." she replied, perfectly mimicking one with a slightly darker contralto.
"Also, do you gotta look so...old? He's gonna catch on pretty quick you're a shapeshifter," Blob pointed out.
Mystique nodded in agreement, and her flesh bubbled and re arranged itself so that she looked to be in her mid-twenties, though she kept the blonde hair, fair skin and green eyes, though now she looked to be wearing some sort of skintight white pants and a matching white strapless top that looked almost like a corset, with rather high heeled boots.
"Better?"
"Uh, go with the dress look you had before, but keep everything else," Toad advised.
She looked down at herself. "You sure?"
"Trust me," he said, again in a deadpan manner.
She sighed, morphing her appearance so she now wore an all-white version of the dress look she had before.
"Emma Grace Frost, Language Instructor at Xavier's Academy for Talented Youth, immigrant from Germany, stayed long enough to acquire a New York accent, sound good?" she asked in her perfect New York accent.
"About as good as we can make it, for now," Toad replied. "Let's go get started on finding your kid..."
Mystique turned to Blob, her Skull implant suddenly showing itself on her forehead, but Blob held up his hand.
"You could change the appearance. Not my girth," he said. "I can handle being seen."
Mystique nodded, her implant again receding and vanishing and they all headed down into town...
...
Donaueschingen, the German town they had seen close to the Black Forest, was unlike anything Toad or Blob had ever come across. It lacked the horns, the sounds, the endless noise of New York City. It was downright pleasant to walk. Ironically, despite being the most obvious oddball in the group, no one seemed to take Blob as anything other than an unusually dressed young man of exceptional rotundness. But EVERYBODY paid attention to Mystique in her new guise as a beautiful blond woman with a supermodel figure, only slightly more than they stared at Zarda herself, who strutted about proudly alongside them. To someone like Toad who was in the know, Mystique's current beauty only served to keep her extremely unsettling to him. Again, he wondered if he was doing the right thing, putting the mutant boy who was very obviously NOT her son in contact with such an Eldritch creature. But the pain of his own childhood, devoid of parents, of anything beyond Essex, had an irrational counterweight to what was, on the surface, something very insane to do. He told himself he was doing the group a favor as a whole, giving Mystique a reason to stick around and be loyal. She clearly needed advice, also. His mind raced back to what she said about copying the traits of her hosts, about being the opposite of their hosts personality. Mystique was uncritical and had little care for long term objectives, which meant her host was extremely cunning...and a ruthless long-term planner. Studying Mystique allowed him an insight into this 'Raven' she spoke of with such absolute loathing, however limited.
Mystique, disguised as her new, youthful alias of 'Emma Frost', went ahead to the Karst Spring close to the Palace, surrounded by stone railings expertly carved, and a statue of extreme detail depicting a figure he didn't recognize... It was the best place to cast the searching spell, since she was so emotionally tied to this place. She enjoyed the staring she received as she passed by, realizing this was an interesting reaction to receive...and how arbitrary looks as a way to judge someone by was. Toad kept to himself, hands shoved in his pockets, his eyes sliding at every reflection that showed his handsome illusory self. He hated the dreams where he looked normal. Those always caused him to cry when he woke up, because it wasn't real, any more than the illusion she had put over him was.
It saddened him, to finally see himself the way he always wanted to look...only to know it couldn't last. That soon, after they got Mystique's son, he would be back to being the ugly freak catching bugs with his tongue. He could never enjoy the sunlight.
"Mister Toynbee..." Mystique said in her fresh, young sounding New York accent. "It occurs to me...how would you and Blob like to be adopted by me?"
Toad AND Blob, AND Power Princess blinked at her in a mix of surprise and mortification.
"Your advice is valuable...and I...I have gaps in my knowledge, gaps I didn't even think about until you pointed to them..." she mused as she finally approached the railing, looking into the deep blue hole of the Karst Spring.
"Way I see it, it would be a win-win scenario for all three of us..." Mystique mused. "My son gets almost a full family unit, you and Blob get a parent in your lives, and we can ALL stick together after Genosha happens if we survive. Besides..." she trailed playfully turning to Toad and Blob.
"It's not like a Psychic Lovecraftian Nightmare could do more poorly than an actual human at parenting," she joked.
"Wanna take that bet?" Power Princess asked dryly.
"Uh...that's a pretty HEAVY question, and that's coming from someone who KNOWS heavy," Blob said. "Can we have some time to think about it?"
Mystique nodded. "Of course. It's just, I see you two, and you all had such lonely existences, same as I did. I figure, why not go all in if I want to be a parent so bad, and there are two teenagers in front of me so obviously hurting..."
"It was really horrible, gestating in that sewer, wasn't it?" Toad asked.
"Imagine you just watched a child that you wanted to save, more than anything, be thrown into a river, while you are desperately trying to devour your host, so she won't do it, and then she literally vomits you into a sink after the deed. Then you spend thirteen years in darkness, dreaming only of a boy being tossed into the water, and the fact you are forever linked and derived from the disgusting being that did it," Mystique answered bitterly.
She turned to look into the depths of the spring again.
"Horrible isn't the word for what I went through, Mortimer. Horrible, at this point...is an understatement," she insisted quietly. "You'll never understand how glad I was when I first woke up and saw all of you in Loki's chamber. Not because I thought I had some sort of destiny with you all...but because you were the first faces, I saw, that wasn't Raven's or my screaming son as he vanished into the waters."
That was when Mystique started to sniffle, a few tears falling into the spring.
"Forgive me, I...I need a few minutes to myself..." she said.
Toad nodded and signaled to the others, struggling not to hop in front of these people like he was accustomed to. It felt odd, walking like a regular human.
Power Princess kept drawing stares as she and the others left Mystique alone.
"How interesting isn't it..." Zarda noted. "If they knew what I was, they'd fear me more than they would fear you...no matter how beautiful I am."
"They don't fear The Avengers..." Blob pointed out.
"The Avengers are curated, presentable one offs with colorful abilities and costumes that make them acceptable to the public, and however many times they have actually, genuinely saved the world, and they HAVE, against REAL threats to all humanity, they are as much propaganda as they are functional. Most people aren't threatened by Loki because they just think she's a magician playing up a gimmick or has access to holograms. Or at most is some kind of robot like The Vision and it's a government PsyOp to mess with the heads of the Russians and the Chinese," Toad countered. "If they knew what we knew about Loki? I think they'd consider her as much of an Avengers level threat like they do somebody like Nefaria."
"I wonder if the Avengers know what Loki really is," Blob mused as they explored the place.
"If they do, they've never let on..." Toad observed as he gazed at some of the statue work.
"So Zarda...what's Mutantkind's chances?" Blob asked as he admired the scenery.
The Princess folded her arms. "It's difficult to say. Humanity is incredibly petty and arbitrary, especially when it comes to treating itself with the ideals it so often claims to espouse. Mutants ARE going to inspire fear and hatred across the world...what's up in the air currently is how much of both Mutants will inspire when their existence is revealed."
She paused, watching two children of different ethnicities play together while their tourist parents took photos of the idyllic location.
"It reminds me of something some journalist, I think, said; Oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all," Zarda added, watching them play without a care in the world-only for their parents to notice and drag each other away back to their own group.
"Humanity kills each other just over a variance in pigmentation or belief, how much more willing will they be to kill over differences of genetics? They already have people like Johann Schimdt as an example. He was perfectly willing to do it, all in the name of avoiding being 'replaced'."
"The trouble is..." she sighed, watching the two families pull away from each other to continue taking photos on their own. "Is that the willingness to build a bridge goes two ways. Mutants will want to start wars the same as humanity will. And some will look at humanity with just as much contempt as certain humans will look at Mutants."
Zarda watched as the two children stared at each other, and when their parents weren't looking, snuck away and started playing tag with each other, albeit quietly.
"People will have to be willing to defy the expectations of the previous generation. To be willing to escape. To trust. To Love," Zarda concluded. "And that's a decision that can take place only within the hearts of both. You can't force love for your fellow. It must be built."
The other two were silent as they considered her words, watching the two children play.
"Hey guys, I'm gonna go check on Cassandra...what about you two?"
"I think I shall explore this city some more with Mortimer..." Zarda replied.
"What do you say?" she asked Toad.
"Never been beyond the orphanage before...whaddya think?" Toad replied, shoving his hands into his pockets, resisting the urge to snatch a fly he saw buzzing around him with his tongue. Loki's Tiara hung from his belt buckle, glittering, yet no one seemed to take notice of it.
"Alright, see ya!" Blob said, wandering off.
The Princess and the Toad were now a duo wandering the town.
"You seemed pretty quiet when Mystique offered to adopt you..." Zarda mentioned. "Were you actually considering it?"
Toad didn't answer the question as he continued to observe the city. Zarda took the hint after a moment.
Toad paused, and spotted a gift shop for tourists, and gestured for Zarda to follow him inside.
Toad's eyes glittered at all the figurines and snow globes, while Power Princess kept watch. As he looked, he heard the roar of helicopters overhead. A LOT of them.
He walked back outside, watching the fleet of Black Helicopters fly overhead, flying at speeds much faster than a normal combat helicopter could be capable of. A chill came over him. He thought it was fear. It was actually instinct.
"Zarda?" he called out softly, as Power Princess followed him back outside. "Those Helicopters...what direction are they flying?"
Zarda looked. "Berlin. Why?"
Toad was running back to Mystique at the spring. Blob was there too, admiring a hummingbird flying around him.
"Hey, 'Emma'!" Toad called out. "You see those choppers?"
"I did, Mortimer," Mystique replied. "What has you so concerned?"
"Hello?! Earth to Misty!" Toad complained. "We show up here in Germany to look for someone in Berlin, right on the day a small fleet of black helicopters are heading to Berlin also!? Does that SOUND like coincidence to you?!"
"Mein Gott, you're right!" Mystique exclaimed, momentarily breaking character by accident by slipping into her true East German Accent. "We have to go. I've traced him with that magic I picked up earlier! He's in Friedrichstrasse!"
"Whoa. As in Checkpoint Charlie?!" Blob asked.
"Very close, yes, as to why...I'm not sure, we need to go get him. Follow me, I know where it is, my host did countless missions over that border. How crazy he would be there..."
The three followed her and they ducked into an alleyway, Mystique teleporting them all into the more cosmopolitan area of West Germany.
She stiffened.
"Amazing. I can sense him..." she whispered, slipping back into her fake but perfect New York accent as they appeared in a busy street full of surprised West German citizens.
"Uh, relax folks!" Mystique said in a now perfect German with a western affectation to it. "We're Magicians! Just practicing for an upcoming act!"
The crowds watching seemed to still view them skeptically, but some clapped hesitantly.
They were all quickly moving through the street. In the distance, Toad started to hear the familiar whine of the helicopters, but it was extremely faint.
"We gotta hurry, those choppers are moving fast..." he warned walking at Mystique's already quick pace as they started heading alongside the Border Wall, looking at one of the buildings in the older neighborhoods, which rose high over the border, she looked inside.
"Looks...looks like some sort of Catholic Shelter for the homeless...closed down..." Zarda said. "How in the world did he end up here?"
Mystique looked around, saw no one else on the street, and went up to it. She tested the doorknob. Locked.
She shoved her finger into the lock and her finger molded itself to its internals, moving the pins into their proper place, before pulling her finger back out as the door unlocked.
They peered inside. Narrow passages.
"Uh, guys? I can't fit through there..." Blob said, red in the face from embarrassment.
"Hide in the Alley, Herr Dukes, we will be back for you as soon as we can. Zarda, join him..." Mystique advised. He nodded and immediately went to a side alley with Zarda.
"Stay safe, you two," Toad said as he followed Mystique in.
The interior was dilapidated, but nonetheless, they observed signs of activity. A discarded wrapper, a lit lantern leading into the basement.
"Shhh..." she whispered, as she crept forward, heading to the staircase.
A slim but muscular fist and arm of steel punched through the wall next to a surprised Mystique and snatched her through the wall, make Toad jump back and adhere to the opposite wall in surprise.
Mystique rose up, staring at the steel skinned teenager who looked to be wearing hand me down donated clothes. He looked to be only thirteen despite his muscles. His height barely reached the bottom of her neck.
"I'll never go back to The Red Room!" the boy screamed in Russian before he launched himself at her, his uppercut sent Mystique through the ceiling, and his athletic leap caused him to burst through the ceiling too onto the second floor, where Mystique had just pulled herself up, though she was still dazed.
He launched another punch, but this time she caught it, to his surprise, though she was driven to her knees, clearly trying to keep the boy from overpowering her.
Toad leaped up through the hole he had made, launching a glob of Mucus at the Boy's eyes, blinding him, but in a panicked rage, he managed to blind tackle Mystique right down the hole he had punched her through.
He kept punching her in the face as hard as she could, to the point the Skull Implant in her body actually began to fluctuate from trying to generate the protective field around her face.
On the next blow however, her body seemed to turn a shiny, crystalline form reminiscent of diamond, and his punches only hit near indestructible skin, including the parts of her body morphed to look like a dress.
Toad jumped down launching a somersault kick that knocked the boy into the wall, but he might as well have been smacked with a pillow for all the good it did, because Toad cartwheeled to the side for his life as the boy launched his steel fist blindly.
"Piotr! Piotr, STOP!" yelled another boy in Russian with a distinctly German Accent.
The steel skinned boy stumbled around, finally tearing the Mucus from his skin as he checked the source of the voice.
It was a boy about his height, clad in torn, friar like robes, with a hood over his head. Toad eyed the blue tail. the boy sported; it had an arrow like tip and looked sharp, as well as his blue, two toed feet in digitigrade stance. A fellow Killcrop.
The steel-colored boy with matching eyes glanced at them in suspicion and fear, noting the diamond form of Mystique as it went back to normal.
Mystique pulled herself up, went stock still as she realized it was HIM. She felt him directly in front of her.
"He attacked us first; we didn't start it!" Toad immediately said.
"An American? Gutentag," the boy under the hood said calmly. "We don't get many Americans on the pipeline. Mostly people wanting to get out of Russia. Forgive us, we must be very careful in who comes and goes here. We had no idea you were Mutants until it was too late."
"It's alright," Mystique said in her New York accent. "We come in peace; we mean you no harm."
"That is good to know, Fraulein. Because I am the defender of this Pipeline-" the boy said, making a clawed gesture with three fingered hands, teleporting Mystique close to him, where his edged tail slid effortlessly just under her throat.
"-and if you are lying and have come to harm it, it's not Piotr you'll have to worry about," he added, still with a friendly tone, but the steel in his voice let them know he was NOT kidding.
"As you Americans put it, are we 'crystal'?" the boy asked.
"Just like I was a few moments ago..." Mystique replied with a friendly smile. "May I ask your name?"
"Kurt," the boy said. "And your name, Fraulein?"
"Emma," Mystique answered.
"What are you here for?"
"I'm here because I came to look for you, specifically," 'Emma' replied in a soft voice. "You're in a lot of danger."
The boy did not remove his barbed tail from her neck. "Explain, Fraulein."
"Kid, I..I know it's a lot to take in..." Toad said, stepping forward. "We're here to rescue you. There are helicopters heading to Berlin."
This made the kid perk up. "Very fast ones? Faster than any normal Helicopter?"
"Yes!" Mystique confirmed.
"It's them!" Piotr hissed at Kurt, clenching his fists. "It's those mutant hunting bloodsuckers from ORCHIS! They've found us! We must evacuate the pipeline immediately, Comrade!"
The boy seemed to weigh his options.
"Follow me down...we can talk better there..." Kurt said heading down the staircase.
They all headed downstairs, and Toad saw the basement had been dug out and restructured, leading partly into the sewers. Stolen radio equipment and charts were everywhere, even some sort of ad-hoc radar station had been set up, along with beds set up where sick or injured, both human and mutant lay. A large crucifix was in one corner, with half melted candles around it. Human and Mutant nurses and helpers gave out food and water, equally entertaining Mutant and human refugee children by reading children's stories or playing with puppets and putting on small shows.
"What's ORCHIS?" Toad asked.
"They're a subdivision of SHIELD, set up in secret to specifically track down and detain Mutants indefinitely, if necessary," Kurt answered bitterly. "This pipeline smuggles political dissidents and Mutants out of Russia. It was inevitable what I'm doing would stir the pot..."
"Does that mean SHIELD is working with the Russians?" Mystique asked.
"No. But SHIELD supposedly can't afford things getting heated in this country right now, even though everybody can see the writing on The Berlin Wall. I'm just helping innocent people escape the insanity that will ensue from the inevitable collapse and saving innocent Mutants from being experimented on like my friend Piotr was."
"That's a lot of responsibility to take on. What prompts you to do this?" Mystique asked.
"My faith in God, Fraulein..." Kurt answered, gesturing to the crucifix altar in the corner.
It was only by his mercy that I was found and taken in by the people who ran this homeless shelter in secret. It is my duty to share the mercy that was given to me with others, so that they might hopefully find their way to a peaceful, just life...and even more hopefully, to his arms, as I was..."
Mystique tilted her head in curiosity slightly, utterly baffled inwardly, at how her son had turned out...yet also impressed by the results...
"But...why are you both here to rescue me?" Kurt asked.
"We WERE here to rescue you..." Mystique said. "Now we're here to rescue everyone AND you. We're fellow Mutants, and we want to help."
"I believe you. ORCHIS doesn't use Mutants," Kurt said, though he eyed Emma/Mystique with a tad more caution. It was mostly Toad's presence that made him think Mystique wasn't hostile...ORCHIS didn't bring children into their missions either.
Piotr folded his arms.
"Kurt, they're outsiders, we know nothing of them," he protested.
"Those Helicopters they described could only be ORCHIS my friend," Kurt countered.
"Just because they warned us of one enemy coming does not make them necessarily our allies," Piotr countered right back.
"Do you know of Charles Xavier?" Mystique asked them very quietly. "We're friends of his."
Piotr clamped down on her mouth with shocking speed that caught even Kurt off guard.
"Keep your voice down! Only authorized Mutants speak the true name of Natisk out loud like that!" he said in a panicked hiss.
"Natisk? That's what they call Charlie in Russia?" Toad asked.
"Natisk is the best defender of Mutantkind that Mutants have right now..." Kurt said. "He funds escape pipelines all over the world for Mutants. We're not directly associated with the American Morlocks, where Natisk's influence is greatest, but whoever we can't care for, we send his way."
"Look, we're cool with Natisk!" Toad claimed. "We're here to protect mutants, and so are the two friends we brought with us outside. I know this is very sudden, and I know you have no real reason to trust us, but I am pleading with you to believe that we're here to help you."
Mystique remained silent, her instinct to bring Toad with her vindicated as Kurt eventually nodded.
"Alright, friend, I'll trust you and the blond Fraulein..." Kurt said, removing his hood. Mystique's breath caught in her throat at his elfish ears and blue-black hair, messy and unkept, his dark blue face narrow with sharp features, and all yellow eyes that matched Mystique's natural form. The motherly affection her host had never once felt a shred of flooded her at the sight.
"Is something the matter, Fraulein?" Kurt inquired, noticing Mystique/Emma's eyes had gotten VERY slightly wet at the corners.
"Nothing, Kurt," Mystique/Emma answered.
Just then a tall muscular man with a strong jaw and a reddish-brown complexion in a black t shirt and spare U.S. Army olive drab soldier fatigues with a U.S. Flag themed bandana climbed out of the oddly high-tech hatchway built into the sewer tunnels below. Toad saw his left arm and both legs were replaced by segmented, steel like prosthetics that looked unusually sophisticated, along with his right eye, which seemed like it was made of steel.
"We got trouble, Kurt, Stealth Detector went off...hey who are these?" the man asked, drawing some sort of futuristic looking pistol with a projection lens Toad knew instinctively to be Ruby Quartz, pointing it at him and Mystique.
"Nein! Nein!" Kurt said, waving his three fingered hands frantically. "It's alright, Forge! They are with Natisk!"
Forge peered at Toad in particular, the center of the green lens of his mechanical eye lighting up as it scanned him and Mystique.
"I didn't hear him giving a call telling us you were coming," he said.
"It was rather sudden, us getting here," Mystique said.
"ORCHIS is coming! They came here to warn us!" Kurt snapped. "They're here to help! I believe them."
"You might be the Pipeline Guardian, but I'M the director of this here Pipeline, and these people weren't invited, they weren't authorized, and I've never seen 'em before," Forge snapped in a calm but clearly mistrustful tone, not taking his pistol off them.
"ORCHIS doesn't use Mutants, and they certainly don't use teenagers..." Kurt reminded him.
"Perhaps they decided to switch things up a bit," Forge replied in suspicion. "You HAVE been pissing them off, Kurt."
"I won't apologize for being what I am, or for helping others escape Tyranny," Kurt snorted. "If they're bad guys, I'll deal with them. Myself."
Forge shrugged, putting away his pistol. Kurt's judgment was highly trusted here, Mystique realized.
"I hope you are right kid, because if you ain't, it's ALL our lives, potentially," Forge said with a snort to Kurt before looking at Toad and Mystique.
"ORCHIS has Stealth Helicopters my sensors have an awful time trying to sniff out. How long do you suppose until they arrive?" Forge asked.
"At the speed they were going? Maybe ten minutes," Mystique estimated.
"That barely gives us a shot. Alright, I need help moving the injured to the evacuation point I arranged for below. EVERYONE! It's evac time! Not a drill! Every able-bodied Mutant and Human start getting the infirm ready for transport below!" Forge called out.
"ALERT. Stealth Aircraft exhaust fumes detected," the nearby radar station pinged.
"We got seven minutes," Forge said. "Hope you Mutants got some useful powers, or you're in for a bad day if you can't get clear."
Mystique shapeshifted her body to look like it was wearing a white spandex catsuit. Everybody, except Toad and Kurt backed away in horror and terror. Kurt, notably, only raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry about me, Darling, I'll be just fine," she replied with a confident smile, not at all understanding that for them, it was the first time they had ever known for certain that true to the implication shapeshifting mutants were possible, and once THAT realization hit, all the OTHER realizations about just how horribly dangerous the woman in front of them actually was switched on like a big, ugly, light bulb in their heads.
Forge stared at her in nothing less than open terror, his finger hovering over the trigger to his futuristic pistol.
"Shoot it, Forge," one of the more horrifyingly ugly mutants encouraged quietly in the back, his hideous face noticeably contorted in as much terror as Forge's was. "Shoot it dead. It's an abomination!"
"Shoot it!" Piotr said, not hiding his fear of Mystique.
"I came to help you..." Mystique pleaded softly, uncomprehending.
Only Kurt and Toad stepping in front of Mystique at the same time stopped him from firing.
"No one is shooting anyone, Forge," Kurt said. "She is MY problem. I'll deal with her."
Forge's organic hand, which held the gun trembled...the sweat poured down his face. Toad knew if he fired, EVERYONE except him and Kurt would join in.
"Sir..." Toad trailed, the sweat of mortal fear trailing down his face when he saw how many Mutants AND Humans were ready to attack them.
"We're losing time here. You and the rest of these people need to decide who they're more scared of; ORCHIS, or Emma?" Toad added, a second later. "You can try to kill her, or you can let her and me and my friends help you to escape ORCHIS. You can't do both."
Forge ignored the frightened shouting of Mutants to put her down where she stood and finally holstered his weapon, though he didn't take his terror-stricken eyes off Mystique, who looked around, not understanding...
"Alright..." Forge whispered in breathless fear. "I'll take the chance."
He pointed right at Mystique, who by this point was starting to get as scared as Kurt and Toad were.
"But you keep that thing away from me..." he snapped as he began helping the others evacuate. "I don't want it NEAR any of the patients, either..."
"Deal," Kurt and Toad said at the same time.
The other Mutants backed down when Forge did and resumed their evacuation.
Kurt turned to Mystique. "I am so sorry for that Fraulein. You did not deserve that," Kurt said to her sympathetically.
"What the hell is their problem?" Mystique/Emma asked
"Natisk, he means well, but Mutants like Forge keep him in the dark about certain things..." Kurt admitted, tail wagging in anxiousness. "Like me, for example. A lot of people here had the same reaction to me when they understood the full implications of my Mutant gift. It took a long time for them to trust I wouldn't teleport their heart out of their chest in a fit of pique. Most Mutants around the world don't have such a special power like mine. It's mostly base, physical mutations, better eyesight, more hairy, more muscular, stony skin, giant ears and eyeballs, that sort of thing. All useful but limited. Not a big threat to humanity. And then there's something like you. And me."
Kurt teleported a crate of medical supplies down to one of the human refugees.
"Forgive them. They have much to fear from the world, and a great deal of them have also come to the conclusion they may have more to fear from Mutants perceived to be so powerful that Humanity might decide to wipe all of us out just to kill the few among us that they are REALLY afraid of," Kurt said.
"You can't survive by being too pathetic to kill!" Mystique/Emma hissed in disgust and astonishment at his explanation. "And Mutants will never survive by killing their own. They'd have been doing the work of ORCHIS for them!"
"Fear makes people's inner demons especially strong..." was all Kurt could say in explanation. "And Fear of Mutants who are telepaths, telekinetics, and energy conduits are at the top of the list of fears for every Mutant whose most significant ability, at most, is having skin that's slightly tougher than normal. Humans don't even factor into most Mutant's prejudices, what they really, actively dread, when in comparison to someone like us."
"Perhaps today is a chance to prove their fears are misplaced..." Mystique offered on reply.
Kurt shrugged. "Perhaps. You're my first shapeshifter, Fraulein. I admit...I'm kind of curious as to whether the fear is justified myself..."
Kurt somersaulted away from Mystique to help the others evacuate. Toad turned to her.
"I... I'm sorry...'Emma'...I thought people might react badly but...I didn't think it'd be that bad..." Toad stammered.
"It's not your fault, Mortimer, it's mine. I was too casual with my ability. I didn't think about the consequences of showing it," Mystique admitted quietly to Toad. "I'll wait upstairs in case ORCHIS tries the front door. You go with them into the escape tunnel, Get Zarda down here also, it's time we see how much of a damn she's actually worth in a scrape."
Toad nodded and hopped away.
...
Blob heard the Helicopters before he saw them, hovering a street or two away with multiple soldiers in all black gear roping down, and tapped Zarda on the Shoulder, who had been leaning against a brick wall, waiting when Toad hopped back out.
"Zarda, need your help down here!" Toad said.
"Folks, they're here..." Blob said ruefully, watching squads of black armored troops round the German streets.
"Blob, can you handle this?" Zarda asked.
"If Mort says he needs your help, he needs your help Zarda. I'll be fine," Blob assured, stepping in front of the old building.
Zarda nodded and floated up to the steps and then inside the House with Toad just as the ORCHIS soldier noticed and trained their weapons on him, just as he was fully in front of the door.
"Unidentified X-Gene Subject..." one of the soldiers noticed, scanning him with some sort of high-tech monocle fixed to their helmets.
"Unidentified, nothing," Blob said. "What are you pointing guns at me for? Can't a guy get a little sunshine without the threat of death?"
"Stand down, Mutant. As of now, you're under the jurisdiction of ORCHIS. You will be detained and examined. Cooperate, and your detainment doesn't have to be too...restrictive," said the lead soldier in the balaclava, keeping an M60 trained on him.
"What am I charged with? Standing out here? What's the crime?" Blob asked.
"Doesn't have to be a charge at all if you cooperate."
"Do I at least get a lawyer?" Blob asked, trying to be reasonable.
"Lawyers are for criminals. Are you one?" the soldier challenged.
"Who's asking? Because I dunno who the hell ORCHIS is. And last I checked, obeying the orders of men in all black uniforms was why everything got so messed up in this country," Blob replied scathingly.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Mutant. Your choice. Last warning," the Soldier said quietly.
"Y'know what? I'm gonna go easy on ya'," Blob said, folding large, meaty arms. "If you fellas can move me from where I'm standing...you can HAVE whoever is inside."
"You're on..." the soldier replied, opening fire right at Blob's face, but his tissue, even his eyes, absorbed the kinetic energy so much he felt no pain, and the bullets didn't even ricochet, due to his body absorbing so much energy that they just clattered to the ground in front of him in increasing heaps, each soldier growing rapidly concerned as they had NEVER met a mutant so utterly resistant to damage before.
"Only person who moves me is ME!" Fred Dukes yelled, standing in place with his arms folded triumphantly as they riddled him pointlessly with bullets. "I'm THE BLOB, BABY!"