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When Harry had left that morning on his circuit of meetings Storm had her own meetings to attend, mostly involving hiring new workers for SAAB, Elemental Energies, and filling in the losses Magical Minds had taken to get EE off the ground. After that she had a nice lunch with Madame Harkness and Franklin, then a training session with Gaea, one of the last such she would need.
After that, Storm stopped by to talk to Father Garnoff, talking about the students and if Rahne had become more comfortable with him around before going over some information with him about the names in the Big Book of Students. Piotr and Amara were out today, bringing in a student from Greece whose name had flared into the red that morning.
The two of them were wondering what had happened there, while the stretching of the pen went on behind them, adding another few names to the list. Storm suddenly frowned, watching as one name in Australia suddenly went from green to red and then straight to black in the space of a single blank.
While Ororo was still gaping in shock, Father Garnoff sighed sadly. "A car accident or something similar perhaps," he said, reaching forward with a gentle hand to touch the name that was still on the board for a moment, though it was fading even as he did so. He mumbled a prayer in Russian, while Ororo did the same to Gaea, shaking her head at the vagaries of fate.
I've seen people die, children too occasionally on the streets of Cairo and later on during my time being worshiped as a goddess, it shouldn't hit me so, she thought. But, but there's something very dramatic about watching that name disappear like that. "Does that happen often?"
"Not with that kind of suddenness." Garnoff replied honestly. "We've been very damn good, and lucky, when it comes to getting kids out of potential danger areas. But as that just showed, we can't do everything, and chance and fate play a role."
"I dislike the idea that such things are fate." Ororo said sharply, glaring at the man who backed away slightly at the sudden heat in her voice. "Chance yes, fate no." She stopped then, watching as two names from the safe green color to the orange of danger. "And does that happen often as well?" She asked, pointing at the changing color.
Garnoff turned to the book, reading off the address, both of which were in Los Angeles and shook his head. "Considering the address just changed from their homes to 'blacked out minivan' and 'underground', I don't think so."
As Garnoff watched the second address faded out, as if the area the youth was in couldn't be termed a specific address. The first however remained. "Honestly, sometimes I think the sentience or what-have-you that Harry's mentioned a time or two as growing in the castle has impacted the spells on Book of Students at times, it sometimes gives much more information about the address than it should be able to, like this one."
"I wouldn't be surprised, magic is, is tricky, and the effects of a lot of magic in one place can vary widely beyond what anyone can predict." Ororo frowned still staring at the, then nodded. "Nessy?"
Nessy appeared in front of her, bowing quickly. "Yes mistress?"
"Are there any other Custodes still in the castle?"
"Only Ms. Betsy mistress. Piotr and 'Mara is not back yet, nor is the master."
Staring at the names which were still glowing a baleful orange Ororo nodded. "Could you get me a phone, then find Betsy and bring her here? Something seems to be going on in Los Angeles."
Betsy arrived dressed in her Custodes uniform. It was a purple and matte black skinsuit that covered her from head to toe, with a helmet that looked something like Danielle's, complete with an armored area in the back for her hair. She also carried a rifle on her shoulder, though it was noticeably missing the sniper scope, and a longsword at her waist. While Betsy was a decent shot at midrange she didn't have the eye to be a sniper.
When the issue was explained to her, Betsy nodded, though inside she was a little leery about how stretched the team was becoming. Deciding to bring that up, she asked, "I understand the problem, but why don't we just send this information to the X-men? Aren't they supposed to be up to handling any issues like this that pop up in America?"
"I already attempted to call the mansion, and then sent Nessy to talk to Clare. Charles is out with the new language teacher, Moira, and the X-men are on a mission somewhere in Ohio. That leaves us to handle this. I'll teleport us to land somewhere nearby where these two vans are moving and we can make further plans then. Don't worry, if we need to call in more aid we can do so easily." She said tapping her headdress from which hung an in small microphone. Betsy had another one built into her helmet, both of which connected to the castle. "I've already told Sir Dennis where we're going, and once they get back Amara and Piotr will both be available to help out at need."
Psylocke nodded, though the worry the Custodes were spreading themselves to thin would not go away. She moved forward to clasp hands with Storm, who first covered them with an illusion spell, then teleported them to Los Angeles, both spells being ones she had learned from Gaea. The Earth Goddess' teleportation spell was simply better by far than Harry's when dealing with places on Earth.
A bare second after leaving Camelot the two women appeared on a small rooftop in Los Angeles, only then remembering that LA was eight hours behind Scotland. While it was near sundown in Scotland, it was only a little after noon here. Looking over the side Psylocke noticed it was some kind of eatery, surrounded by equally small and innocuous shops and office buildings in a suburb of LA. She turned as Storm held up a hand, balancing a small piece of concrete on it. "Point me Kevin Goldstein."
Storm moved to join Psylocke at the edge of the roof, watching as the piece of arrow-shaped concrete pointed down and to the left slightly at a van with darkened windows that was passing by on the street below. "Is it just me, or do the vans and limos that have darkened windows like that always look a little suspicious?" Psylocke quipped staring down at the van as it made a turn.
"It's not just you." Storm replied, lifting into the air and pulling Psylocke up next to her to hover there for a moment, using her control over the wind so adroitly that while Psylocke hovered weightless in the air the people on the street directly below didn't even feel a breeze.
They trailed the van through the city out into the suburbs around it, only to stop in surprise after the van continued on after stopping at a red light. The pointer remained pointing down for a moment before moving in an entirely different direction while the van continued on its way. "What the?" Storm muttered frowning thoughtfully as she stared at the pointer then at the van which was even now turning around and heading back into the city proper. "Someone interfering with my spell?"
"Could that spell be tricked by somehow, I don't know, putting the 'magical scent' or whatever onto something else?" Psylocke asked, staring down as well from where she was hovering next to Storm, fighting off a feeling of irritation. She did not like being completely dependent on the other woman's mutant power to remain in the air like this.
While Psylocke remained there, Storm flew around the intersection where the spell seemed to have gone wrong, frowning then shuddering a little as realization dawned. She gestured with one hand, and the wind holding Psylocke up pulled her close. "I don't think so."
A moment later, Psylocke got it, staring at a manhole cover directly under where the spell seemed to have gone wonky. She nodded thoughtfully. "So the van parked directly over a manhole cover, probably it had some kind of trick bottom to it or something. They open up the bottom of the car, remove the manhole cover and lower the kidnapped kid into the sewer."
It was only when she stopped talking to look at her fellow Custodes that Psylocke realized that Storm was beginning to shake a little. "Storm? What's wrong?"
Storm growled angrily, folding her arms around herself. "I have an extreme case of claustrophobia. Sewers like that are very tough for me."
Psylocke reached over, grabbing the other woman some shoulder comfortingly. "If it's any consolation, I have a bit of an issue flying under someone else's power like this. That and rats, bloody disgusting little creatures, those tails, ugh!"
"Nobody likes rats." Storm said with a laugh, and if it was a little shaky Psylocke didn't comment.
The two of them continued to follow the trail led by the stick, though Storm's mind really wasn't on the trail itself any longer but how she was going to handle being in the sewers. I don't know any spells that would change my perception and anyway that would be rather dangerous wouldn't it? I'm just going to have to hope the sewers are large enough that I don't collapse into a panic attack. Or, hmm, could a cheering charm help? Something to try I suppose.
The two women continued to follow the trail for another 45 minutes unseen by any below them thanks to the illusion spell Storm cast back in Camelot until they lost it underneath a large and seemingly rundown factory of some kind. Oh, I hope they are actually holding the girl in the building itself rather than in the sewer Storm thought, though she did not really believe that she'd get that lucky.
Unfortunately when the two passed through a large open section of the roof they did not discover anyone in the building itself. Fantastic. Storm growled internally, before looking at Psylocke. "Search around for any manhole cover or any other entrance to the basement or the sewers."
They didn't find any, and had to retrace their steps to the nearest manhole cover. Luckily this area of the city didn't have much in the way of traffic at the moment. Storm was able to lift the manhole cover out of its hole, and Psylocke leaped down, her telekinetic blade lighting up the sewer as she landed down below. "Clear!"
Storm nodded, then grit her teeth and lowered herself slowly into the sewers, leaving the manhole cover where it was for a moment, though covering the area in a small Notice-me-not spell so no one would notice what was going on.
The stench of one sewer is rather like any other, and Storm had smelled worse. But as the two of them moved down and away from their entrance into the subterranean world, the close confines began to bother Storm just as much as she had feared. Every step going forward became harder, and she was twitching nervously, staring at shadows here and there.
Psylocke took the lead, unlimbering her rifle from her shoulder. They quickly came to an intersection, and Storm shakily pointed down one of the passages. Psylocke however turned and stared at her. "Are you sure you're going to be up to anything down here Storm, you don't look good."
Storm smiled grimly, gesturing around them. "I, I'm using my powers of over air to keep a flow going around me, that's helping somewhat, but the, the walls and the fact we're underground, that is an issue."
She breathed in deeply, closing her eyes for a moment. "Wait a moment, there is one thing I want to try." With that Storm cast a cheering charm on herself, and much of her worries faded, though so did some of her ability to concentrate. "I'm alright now, but be on the lookout, I'm not certain I'm going to be much good at spotting traps or anything of that nature.
With Psylocke once more in the lead the two women made their way through the sewers, cautiously now. They came to another intersection this one with a metal ladder heading further underground. Storm sighed, but the two of them headed down, since the pointer was once again pointing at a diagonal downwards. Now they were well beyond any of the light from their entrance, and Storm applied a spell Harry had taught her to both of them, giving their eyesight the same properties as that of a cat, allowing them to continue on.
This continued for a while, but then Storm paused suddenly, reaching forward to grip Psylocke's shoulder. "I'm hearing something from behind us." She murmured, pulling the other woman aside until they were both flush against one of the walls, with Psylocke holding her rifle in front of her flat against her chest.
From behind them came six figures, moving purposefully through the sewers, seemingly unmindful of the smell or the water of the bottom of the sewer. Two of them were carrying torches, allowing them to see. They wore misshapen cloaks, which looked rough to the touch, and seemed to be equally unkempt. One had a large hump on one side of his shoulder. Another had an albino face, briefly seen as his hood moved to one side. Another walked one without a cloak on him, and looked like a bodybuilder dressed like a reject from the circus, complete with massive muscles and bald head.
What was interesting to Storm however was that they were carrying a small, squirming bundle, from which muffled shouts could be barely be heard. Laying her head against Psylocke's helmet, she murmured, making certain to keep her voice low despite the two of them being covered by an Illusion. "That must be the other child, follow them, they might lead us to the second one."
Psylocke nodded, but added a caveat. "We need to check in with Dennis periodically, make certain we can call for backup if we need to, the radios might not work further below ground."
"Even if they don't we can still call in aid another way, don't worry." Storm replied, then gestured the other woman forward.
They followed the six figures marching deeper, and, Psylocke noticed, further downwards most of the time, for about an hour, during which Storm had to stop and recast her cheering charm. Then they began to see what looked like torchlight down the passage. A second later, the chattering of many voices mingled together reached them, and as one the two women skirted backwards toward the last intersection they had passed. Psylocke raised her hand to her helmet, activating her radio, only to receive static back.
When she looked at Storm however, the other woman merely smiled, then said "Cory?"
A second later the master popper appeared, gasping for air. He stood for a moment, his hands on his knees before looking up, his ears straight out as he beamed happily at first, but looking around his face segued quickly into happily determined. "Oooo, popping deeps into earth like that be tough. Wow, is mistress asking Cory to clean this place?"
"No Cory I'm afraid we need your popping skills, not your cleaning ones. Could you pop back to Hogwarts, I think we need to call in some help."
Not a moment later Magma and Colossus were there, looking around intently, while Cory lay gasping for a moment on the ground before jumping to his feet, his smile so wide it looked like that of jack-o-lantern. Colossus nodded at the two women, and Magma smiled, her energy form flickering on and lighting the sewers around them. "Well, we were having a pretty normal day. You know the kid down in Greece, the one who was in danger? Turns out he's got an uncle who's abusive who had moved in with the family this morning."
Colossus nodded, taking up the tale as he peered around the corner of the intersection down toward the torchlight. "We arrived as he was beating the boy, whose name is Babak, stopped him, then only had to wait around for the parents. They are actually supportive of Babak. His power by the way is limited flight, more of an enhanced hopping ability really. At any rate, the father, who is the older of the two, threw his brother out of the house, and promised to be on guard in the future."
"Then we come home and have a bare five minutes to grab something to eat, before Cory pops in telling us you two need help. So, what's going on?" Magma asked.
Storm filled them in on what was happening then issued orders, taking the moment to once more hit herself with a cheering charm, noting that the last one had only worked for about two-thirds of the time of the first one. Not good, need to end this now. "I'll go forward under cover of my Illusion, see what sort of opposition we're dealing with, you three stand by here. If a fight starts, Psylocke will remain here to guard our escape, while Magma and Colossus head forward to back me up."
All three of them nodded, though Psylocke scowled inside her helmet, unhappy about needing to remain where she was, greatly preferring to mix it up in close quarters with her telepathic blades rather than use her rifle. Still, that's why you brought it along you bloody fool. "Good luck Storm."
After redoing the spells on her, Storm strode forward down the passage. Soon the passage began to widen, ending in what looked like an underground bunker, possibly left over from WW2. It was large about four stories tall and the size of a subway station with small alcoves here and there built into the walls. Several shanty buildings stood here and there, though they looked sturdier than the normal variety.
Everywhere Storm looked there were mutants with physical deformities, at least a hundred of them, maybe more. Most of them were adults which was the surprising thing, and they truly came in all varieties. Storm saw several of them that had heavy muscles, and saw one small fairy creature flitting around. Dozens of them had scales or bits and pieces of fur, and many had what looked like strangely melted features. At least two of them looked like werecats of some kind. How in the world has this place remained hidden from Charles and Cerebro!? By the goddess, how did they all come together like this?
"No, no, no! Take me back home, where's my mom and dad!" A loud shrill voice shouted, obviously the voice of a child.
Storm quickly made her way through the crowd toward that voice, calling over her head set. "Colossus, Magma move in to the outskirts of what seems to be a bunker of some kind. Psylocke go with them, prepare to fire down range on my signal, but not before."
Moving carefully so she didn't bump into anyone Storm wended her way through the crowd, not noticing that several of the mutants around her had stopped what they were doing and were sniffing the air. While her illusion covered Storm's body, and the Muffilatio covered any noise she made, Storm had neglected to hide her scent. The two possible werecats in particular moved toward where the new scent was coming from, confused as their other senses couldn't tell them anything.
Storm quickly came to slightly larger, stone hovel at the far back of the bunker. In front of it were the six people she and Psylocke had trailed here, two children, and two other adults, both women. One child was an obvious mutant, his skin green, and his eyes wide and yellow colored. The other was a boy in glasses and, admittedly, a rather hideous t-shirt and suspender combination. Both children clung to one another, staring around in trepidation, but it was the one in glasses that had spoken. It was only his fingers, which seemed to have little tiny tendrils coming out of the fingers, which marked him as a mutant.
One woman was thin and wiry, dressed in biker leathers complete with a choker around her throat, a black eyepatch over one eye and short black hair spiked in every direction. She was flipping a dagger up and down in one hand and seemed to radiate a sort of dangerous energy.
The other woman looked like a storybook version of a grandmother. She was somewhat overweight, with a wide, friendly face and small glasses perched on her nose. She wore a yellow apron over a rather clean looking blouse considering where they were, and wore a natural-seeming smile on her face. "Now dearie, you'll like living here with us. No one's going to look at you strangely or call you names down here. You'll fit right in with the Morlocks. Old Annalee will take care of you."
The boy didn't seem to agree, hugging the green-skinned boy to him and staring around at these strange adults fearfully. The other woman scoffed, catching her dagger by its tip for a moment. "Hah, I wonder if you've met your match Anny, these two don't seem too impressed. Well whatever, once Masque gets through with that one, he'll fit in just as much as the green boy, then we can have Beautiful Dreamer alter their memories to fit."
"We've talked about that before Callisto." The one named Annalee replied, her voice losing some of its sweetness. "I don't want that, that man near any of the children, I don't care if you think it promotes solidarity to have us all deformed somehow, it's not right!"
The word deformed thankfully went right over the two kid's heads, but Storm caught it, and was angered by the implication. Before she could decide on what to do however one of the six she had trailed here, the albino with the emaciated appearance and the fangs turned staring right toward Storm despite the illusion covering her. "Someone unknown is here, Caliban can sense it!"
The one addressed as Callisto turned quickly, her knife up for throwing and the others that Storm had trailed here also reacted, turning quickly, ready for violence. Knowing the jig was up Ororo canceled the illusion on her, lifting herself into the air of the bunker to be out of grabbing range before barking crisply, even as she deftly caught the thrown dagger in a small eddy of wind. "Colossus, Magma, reveal yourselves, Psylocke, one round over their heads!"
Firing from her position near the entrance to the bunker Psylocke fire a round that slammed into the far side of the bunker. Psylocke's chosen weapon was a plasma rifle rather than a gauss, and the "FZZARK!" was loud and powerful in the enclosed space. The impact on the far wall scorched and melted the concrete under it's touch.
At the same time Colossus and Magma revealed themselves. Colossus was close to where a few of the surrounding Morlocks had smelt Storm. The two werecats, both female, immediately attacked him, but he calmly smacked them aside, their claws unable to injure him, and their strength nowhere near his own. A few of the others looked as if they were about to attack Magma as well, but staring at her energy form thought better of it.
"What the hell!?" Callisto growled, turning to one of the six, the one whose features looked somewhat melted. "Masque, you were followed!?" Snarling she turned to sneer up at Storm. "I don't know who you or your followers are woman, but you've picked a fight with the wrong gang. Morlocks attack!"
"How many of your followers are you prepared to lose?" Ororo growled, then intoned a quick spell she had learned from Harry, immobilizing several dozen of the Morlocks around her, while a cold mist began to appear all among the small community, noticing that the cheering spells she had cast on herself were beginning to interfere with her ability to concentrate enough to call on her magical abilities. "We have come for the children you kidnapped, nothing more. Give them to us, and we can all walk away from this."
The one called Masque stared up at Storm with undisguised hate in his ravaged face. Masque had been born with his face and body ravaged by disease, and though his power gave him the ability to alters others appearance, it did not allow him to alter his own. Because of this he hated anyone who could be called beautiful, and Storm was both beautiful and powerful, making him hater her at first sight. "Don't listen to the pretty little bitch! There's only three or four of them, we can take them!"
"Seeing as we're underground, and my power gives me control of tectonic forces, I really doubt it. Unless you're all somehow immune to lava?" Magma said, smiling grimly.
She wasn't bluffing about her ability. Here in California, with two huge tectonic plates clashing so close by, she could easily create a fissure right here and flood the caverns with lava. Even stopping it would be easier than normal.
What Magma was bluffing about was her willingness to actually do that. She had burned Sabertooth alive like that. He had been a monster in the truest sense of the word, and still his death had haunted her. She had no desire to do the same to these people, regardless of their crimes.
"She's bluffing." Scoffed the bald man dressed like a body-builder.
Callisto glared at the woman hovering in the air of her bunker, then over the crowd toward the energy creature who had just threatened them with death. Then she stared up at the floating woman again. "No, I don't think they are. But still, I ain't about to let the kids go without a fight bitch. These kids are ours; they're mutants just like us! There's no life for them up top, there never will be!"
"You haven't been following the news lately have you?" Storm said dryly. "And they aren't yours, you kidnapped them from their homes, where they had been safe, to live down here, like this?" She gestured around her, not contemptuously, but dismissively. "You might have made a life for yourselves down here, but you have no right to force others to live like that."
"They might've been safe for now, but that never lasts!" Callisto snapped back. "It doesn't matter what anyone says, mutants will always be outcasts. Better to embrace it, to wear it like a badge and make our own lives here on the fringe than be forced out or worse!"
There was a murmuring of approval from the crowd of Morlocks all around, but Storm shook her head. The cold mist was still rising all around, and more than one Morlock shivered as the temperature under Storm's control continued to drop. "I am not going to debate this with you. Let the children go, or else."
"Or else what?" Masque scoffed. "If you were fine with killing us, you would've attacked already. No, you're bluffing."
"Just because we don't wish to kill you doesn't mean we don't we lack the will or means to do so." Storm replied coldly, concentrating briefly and extending the area of effect paralysis spell to include most of the crowd below her. "You are out of your league here,
Masque moved faster than Storm had thought he could, his hand darting down to hover over the boy in glasses, who with the other child had sat silent, watching the proceedings. "Do it! But before you do, I'll rearrange this boy's features so much he'll never be able to live above ground again! My power lets me mold the physical appearance of anyone I touch like clay, and I'm the only one who can reverse the process!"
"No!" Annalee yelled making to rush forward. And there was more than one voice added to hers in protest from the Morlocks, who despite not being able to move thanks to Ororo's spellwork, could still speak.
Realizing this was a losing proposition, Callisto spoke up quickly. "Wait Masque! I never said you could go that far! Sunder, watch him!"
The big body builder nodded, moving over to behind Masque. "You know you can't do anything to me before I smash your head in Masque, listen to Callisto."
Masque growled, but Callisto had already turned to Storm. "Like I said I can't just let you take them. This is our turf, they were brought here on my orders! What kind of leader would I be if I let someone else roll into our territory and order us around? But we don't all have to fight either."
She smirked, stretching her arms above her head, cracking her neck before pulling out another dagger. "How about this White-eyes, you and I fight, one on one. None of my people'll interfere. You win you and yours walk out of here with the kids. I win, we keep the kids, but you still walk out of here. Not a bad deal eh?" Unspoken was the message that if Storm was so certain they could take the Morlocks, then she could afford to raise the stakes a little more.
"My name is Storm." Storm said, smiling thinly. With a wave of her hands she cleared the Morlocks away from an area right in front of the stone house which probably belonged to Callisto. "And I accept."
She grasped the knife Callisto had hurled at her out of the air where it had continued to spin as the 'discussion' went on, then floated down to stand across from Callisto. She noticed that Masque was still standing too near the kids for her liking and tapped her microphone lightly, speaking in a low tone. "Psylocke, if Masque moves to touch either of the two kids, take him out. Cory, be ready to pop both kids over to Psylocke if I tell you."
The house elf did not reply, seemingly understanding he shouldn't show himself to do so even for a moment. Psylocke did respond, moving forward to take up a position along one wall, still covered by Storm's illusion spell, until she was so close even she couldn't miss. With the Morlocks concentrated on Storm, Magma and Colossus, she went unnoticed for now.
Callisto stepped forward quickly, twirling her dagger as she stared across at Ororo. "First blood on the chest or face wins the match, agreed?"
"Agreed." Storm replied calmly, unclasping her cape and letting it fall behind her, holding the knife in her hand, her body turned to the side of her opponent, one leg forward.
Standing to one side, Sunder raised a fist. "Ready, fight!"
With that Callisto raced forward, knife extending for a feint then dodging to one side, bringing it around in a slash toward Storm's legs. Intending to follow this up with a kick, she instead took one which caught her in the chest, throwing her backwards slightly as Storm stepped into her real assault, not having been fooled by the feint. She then had to roll desperately away from Storm's own assault. Pushing off the ground with both feet Callisto launched herself backwards and away, coming up ready to defend herself but Storm didn't press her for a moment.
The two of them circled one another, feinting and slashing at one another as Callisto slowly realized Storm was fighting her on an even footing. Callisto's mutant powers gave her a fantastic healing power, heightened strength, speed and endurance, but Storm seemed to be just that little bit better with a knife than she was. She seemed able to anticipate Callisto's attacks, whereas the reverse was not true.
The two came together once more, their daggers flashing against one another, while Callisto tried to punch Storm. But Storm dodged it, taking a small gash on her arm from Callisto's knife before her knee came up, smashing into Callisto's stomach with pile-driving force.
Callisto felt herself lifted slightly off the ground from the force of the blow, and couldn't dodge the punch that caught her in the side of her jaw. She dodged backward, lashing out again, forcing Storm back in turn and putting Storm off balance.
But when Callisto tried to lunge forward again, putting all her body weight behind a murderous stab, Storm dodged to one side as smoothly as a dancer, her own dagger coming up to slash underhand right below Callisto's armpit, opening up a gash there that began to bleed profusely before her healing power went to work.
Within one second and the next the wound disappeared, but the blood was still visible on her shirt, and Sunder spoke up quickly, his voice and face showing his shock. "First blood on the body! The, the invader wins."
Storm backed away, but Callisto growled, making to rush forward. She stopped as she saw Storm's hand glowing yellow, crackling lightly with electrical potential. "I wouldn't."
As Callisto came to a halt, her survival instincts at wear with her pride, Masque scowled angrily. "No, I won't let the pretty bitch win! At least I'll deny you your prize!" With that he lunged forward, pushing the startled Annalee to one side, his hands outstretched for the boy with the glasses.
Yet before his hands could touch the boy with glasses the two children disappeared with a loud pop. A moment later a "FZZARK!" rang out, and he knew no more. Masque's head exploded under the power of the plasma round from Psylocke's rifle, his body collapsing to the floor of the bunker.
Some of the Morlocks cried out in anger or shock, but Callisto, coming back to her sense now, bellowed them into silence. "Enough, Storm won the fight fair and square, and besides, you all saw Masque, he wasn't attacker her, he was gonna take it out on the kids because he wasn't strong enough to take her on, and he knew it!"
Besides the bastard's been chaffing under my leadership for months now, always wanting us to recruit mutants by force and letting him disfigure them with his power. We're better without that kind of crap, it's not like we'll ever run out of recruits after all.
She turned to stare to where the shot had come from, not seeing anything but knowing that didn't matter much. Then she glared at Storm. "Take the brats and go."
"And you won't be trying to kidnap anymore? Trust me, we'll know if you do, and if we have to come back again you won't be happy with the consequences." Storm replied her eyes locked on Callisto's. They honestly had a two out of three chance at spotting kids in the area going missing or suddenly being in danger, but now that they knew Los Angeles was especially dangerous, they would watch any names that popped up there closely.
Callisto glared back, but after watching Masque get gunned down like that, and witnessing Storm's own powers in action, she had no wish to press the issue now. "No, we won't, it's not like we ever needed to bolster our numbers like that, we were taking them away for their own good! Humans will never accept mutants, especially not ones like us! You may be able to blend in, go unnoticed, but the moment they know about your powers, humans will turn on you in a second!"
All of the Morlocks around them muttered or shouted agreement to that idea, but Storm merely smiled. "Possibly, possibly not. For now however, these children need to be getting home." Turning without another word Storm made her way toward the entrance where the two boys were waiting beside Cory, holding the little house elf's hands, hoping that this was the last time she would see the Morlocks. But feeling Callisto's hate filled glare on her back, Storm would not have been willing to bet on that.
OOOOOOO
"Soon after that, i had to renew the cheering charm on myself, but afterward i felt unable to concentrate enough to teleport us to the surface. So we were forced to make our way to the surface the same way we had come down, a very muddy, smelly, dirty trek, that got worse for me becasue i had to cast the cheering charm twice more before we reached the surface. Luckily I was able to recover quickly after that."
"I'm happy to report we got both of the boys back to their houses safely. Betsy was a godsend there, calming the parents down, and not incidentally making certain both sets of parents would continue to be supportive of their child. The boy with green skin, Gregory, might have some problems down the line, but for now all's well at least on that front."
Harry had indeed found Ororo up to the headmaster's quarters in their personal bathroom. Joining her, he began to pamper Ororo while she told him what had happened to them, from beginning to end. He smiled proudly at the bravery Ororo showed, facing her fear of enclosed spaces in order to hunt down the kidnappers, though he made a vow to help her find a more permanent defense against it if she ever asked. Right now however he was worried about the Morlocks in general. "Do you think this Callisto will ever change her mind?"
"Doubtful." Ororo murmured, leaning forward allowing Harry to rinse her hair out as one hand gently stroked down his chest. "She's quite arrogant about her ability to defend them, and almost contemptuous of us and most 'surface dwellers' as she calls us. But honestly, I'm uncertain how well any of the Morlock's would fit in here. Most of them are adults, all of them see themselves as willing outcasts, and don't want to fit in anywhere above ground. Callisto and Masque have twisted them all too much for the idea of acceptance to be appealing to them. Worse, I don't think Callisto would ever be willing to follow someone else, and the Morlock's will probably follow her, at least in the short term."
"That's rather depressing." Harry said with a shake of his head. Then his thoughts cut off abruptly as Ororo's hand reached its destination, pulling and tugging.
"I think." she said softly, twisting around but still retaining her new handhold, moving back until her rear was touching Harry's crotch and his now turgid cock. "That I've had enough of serious matters for now…"
Later as they lay in bed and Ororo nuzzled into his chest murmuring happily, Harry waved his free arm using a wordless Accio spell to pull a box up from underneath the bed. The box was about as big as both of his fists side to side, made of oak and of simple design. Leaning forward Harry opened the box, revealing that what was inside nestled on a bed of velvet was not nearly as simple. Two pieces of jewelry lay there.
One was a Panja ring and bracelet. The panja was an Indian jewelry design which was also popular in Egypt where a bracelet was connected to one or more rings by small chains of gold or other precious metals. Here the chain and bracelet was made of silver, the ring of gold, with fine runes worked into the bracelet. A single blue diamond sat on the bracelet where the chain leading down to the ring intersected it, and another, smaller one, set into the ring.
In comparison to that piece, the ring was much smaller, but the design of it was just as magnificent. Intertwined bands of gold and platinum surrounded what looked like a single, perfect, ruby. The surface of the band of silver and platinum were etched with incredibly tiny marks, which could only be a series of runes, much the same as the bracelet, only even more delicate.
Having felt Harry's movement Ororo looked up, gasping quietly as she saw the jewelry in the box. "H-Harry?"
Harry didn't replied, slowly disengaging from her in order to kneel on the bed beside her, pulling out the panja ring-bracelet holding it out to her in one hand. He coughed for a moment, closing his eyes then opened them, staring seriously into Ororo's light blue eyes. "Ororo Munroe, though we have known each other for a little less than a year, I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you, and whatever happens from here on I want us to face it, hand in hand. Will you marry me?" Then he suddenly smiled, waggling his eyebrows. "I told you I'd ask you more romantically once I had rings."
Ororo slowly raised a hand, holding it out to Harry and allowing him to clasp the bracelet around her wrist, then fit the ring onto her ring finger. She held it up to her face, gently turning her hand this way and that admiring the work of it, before quickly reaching forward and grabbing Harry's head, pulling him down into a deep kiss, then rolling the both of them over so that she was on top of him now. "You foolish, foolish loving man! You didn't have to do this my love, I would have married you regardless!" With that she leaned down again, kissing him ardently.
Even later, she murmured. "The ring, would that be for Jean?"
"Yes." Harry said with a nod. "Does that, I mean, I know we've talked about it before, but marriage is supposed…"
"The so called normal way of marriage is one man and one woman yes, but remember that I was not raised in such an environment, and we have talked about this before. Moreover, it would be incredibly petty of me to wants to keep our marriage to myself, when I have feelings for Jean and for Emma and know you do as well." She smiled suddenly, leaning up to kisses lightly before staring into his emerald eyes. "So, are you planning separate weddings for all of us, or just one big wedding? Jean and I talked about that you know, so separate might be the way to go."
"Hadn't thought that far ahead honestly," Harry said with a frown. "And remember Emma doesn't wants to marry me, or us I suppose, since if she marries me, she'll obviously also be marrying you and Jean. She wants to remain independent."
"I remember that but I think she'll come around in time. Especially after we bring the remaining Hellfire Clubs to heel." She frowned then abruptly changed the subject, or seemed to anyway. "Do you think Jean will be back in time for the battle against the Sentinels?"
"I don't think so, my gut is telling me that something will have held her up for better or worse." Harry said with a sigh. "And while you two might have talked about weddings, I never broached the subject with Jean before. I don't, I don't think she'll say no, though she might. Like Emma, Jean likes her independence, so…"
"Not that much no," Ororo replied dryly, chuckling at Harry's bit of naïveté when it came to the female mind. "Trust me Harry, Jean will be over the moon."
OOOOOOO
The battered and mauled fleet of derelicts came out of hyperspace for a second time in a system that Reed estimated wouldn't have any life, or even any planets if they were lucky. They were, the red dwarf not having anything but a large asteroid field spread out between where a few planets might once have been. As the other ships popped into realspace around the Hellion Jean frowned as she saw the numbers. "We lost two more frigates, and… one of the heavy cruisers I think in hyperspace."
Reed and Mar'vel looked over the Sensors then nodded. "One of the heavy cruisers," Mar'vel confirmed. "We're still doing better than I expected honestly, these ships have all seen better days, it's a miracle they withstood a single hyperspace jump."
"Are you trying to become the master of understatement?" Reed quipped, shaking his head. "Honestly when we began this little jaunt the only ship I expected to reach Earth was the Doom Bringer, that ship can take a whole lot of punishment."
"How are all the power ratings Douglas?" Jean asked.
At one of the other Sensor stations Douglas and Paige were working, scrolling through the stream of information from each of the ships around them. "Well, I think we're going to have to leave at least one of the battleships behind, I don't think it's got enough mass in its reactor to get it to Earth."
"One of the light cruisers'n one of the frigates're also running on fumes." Paige said, scrolling further down while Douglas talked. "If we siphon off the fuel from those three ships though, the rest of the fleet should be able to get back to Earth."
Jean nodded, knowing that even 29 ships would be a massive aid in Earth creating its own space fleet. She closed her eyes, sending her telepathic senses out. Frowning slightly she opened her eyes, narrowing them in thought. "Mar'vel, I want you and Douglas on the sensors at all times, I know this is supposed to be an uninhabited and incredibly uninteresting system, but let's not take any chances. I'm sensing… something I don't know what, interest I suppose, but I can't localize it for some reason."
Reed and the others shared glances, but didn't interrupt as Jean went on. "Nikolai, pick out a crew from the Kree volunteers, you and Reed are going to be in charge of siphoning off that mass for the rest of the ships. I'm going to see if I can figure out what I'm feeling…" Jean would be unsuccessful in this while the rest of the crew concentrated on their own duties over the next few hours, something that irritated her no end.
Despite her concern however, for once this mission actually didn't spring any surprises on them. The siphoning operation went off without a hitch, and the Hellion and its accompanying fleet jumped to hyperspace, heading for Earth now without any further attempts to confuse any followers.
Behind them as the last ship jumped out they left a star system silent once more, with the ships they had been forced to leave behind slowly continuing on their way around the red dwarf star. Then, after about a local hour, a small but extremely streamlined ship moved out from behind one of the asteroids deeper in the system
Any Kree, Shi'ar or Skrull would have recognized the ship as being of Shi'ar design, following their belief that speed and striking power was more important than size or armor. The ship had four wing-shaped nacelles spaced equidistant around its hull, which in turn was a long cylinder, the prow of which held numerous heavy weapons, all of whom were the same size that a Kree battlecruiser would have boasted. But rather than have them spread out, this design concentrated all that firepower on one target. The only other weapons it boasted were a few small weapons spread out on the nacelles, more antipersonnel weapons than anything that could harm a ship.
The man sitting in the central seat in the bridge was a human, something that would have astonished Jean and her companions. He was an older man with a trim goatee, wearing what looked like a traditional pirate's getup, including a sword with a basket hilt, and two large pistols, though all three looked more sci-fi than medieval.
Standing next to him was a woman with albino skin and hair and strangely catlike features, though her tail more closely resembled that of a skunk. A giant lizard alien, easily as tall or even taller than Piotr in his Colossus form and even wider in the shoulders, was sitting at one of the bridge stations. Another alien with pointed ears, a cyborg arm and eye was sitting at another station. A long red topknot lead from the back of his bald head stuck out like that a Mongol warrior might have worn.
For a moment after the badly battered Kree fleet jumped out, all of them were silent. Then the human spoke, his voice jovial. "Well, it looks as if they didn't find our hiding place after all."
The woman rolled her eyes, muttering something under her breath about foolish bravado, and stalked off the bridge. "Still," the human said as he sat down, gesturing the helmsman, the alien with the topknot, to take them towards the few ships that had been left behind, hoping there would be something there they could cannibalize or sell. "I wonder what all that was about?"
OOOOOOO
A few days after Harry talked to Charles, Emma set the plan in motion, calling Sebastian in order to pass on the information Sandman had discovered. The leader of the Hellions was just finishing up a business meeting when his personal secretary, Sage, came in. As the last of his managers were walking out, she leaned in, whispering into his ear. "A phone call for you sir, it's Ms. Frost on her secure line, the one that's untraceable. She's calling from her mansion however."
Sebastian's eyebrow rose in surprise, not at what Sage had said, rather that Emma was calling him at all. While they were still loosely allied, their relationship hadn't been very amicable in some time, and most of their communication was at the Hellfire Club, and usually at his instigation. Although since her attempt to find an ally of her own has backfired so spectacularly Emma's choices have been limited to say the least. And despite my plans to eliminate Emma, she is still useful.
"Your thoughts?" He asked, buying time while he finished some of the paperwork from the recent meeting. Though it also was because he wanted to make Emma wait a bit before talking to her, just to rub it in that she had sought him out in the first place.
"Her voice and tone is as always controlled, but judging from slight changes in inflection, and the phrase 'mutual business' which she used multiple times after I answered the phone, I believe this will have something to do with the Sentinel project. The odds of Ms. Frost has found something else to worry her as much that would also interest us is below 12%, while the odds of her having found something out about the Sentinel Project we do not already know is hovering around 72%, plus or minus 5%. The odds of this all being some kind of overture towards reconciliation however is only about 50%, though that number is greatly dependent on the first two variable I mentioned." Sage replied instantly.
Chuckling quietly Sebastian wrote out his signature on a final piece of paper before looking up at his secretary. Tall, lithe with fair skin, a beautiful face and dark black hair which made her light skin tone stand out even more, many dismissed Sage and her place as his secretary as Sebastian simply acting like the lecher he often was. But Sage wasn't just a pretty face, and indeed Sebastian had never really thought of bedding her.
Because Sage was a mutant with a particularly useful skillset for someone like him: she was blessed with incredible advanced intellectual capabilities, her mind working like a computer with unlimited storage capacity, yet without losing the processing capability of the human brain. She could instantly recall specific information with incredible speed and accuracy, making her an incredible analyst, organizer, and strategist. Sage had helped make Sebastian's fortune in the stock market, and was almost always right in any 'prediction' she made. She lacked a human touch with others at times, and was very standoffish with those she didn't see as near her own intellectual level, but those were small issues in comparison to her abilities.
"Interesting, thank you Sage." As the last paper was set aside and a small screen on his desk showed the last of his managers leaving the series of rooms Sage, Sebastian and his secretaries used here in his head office, he nodded to her, pressing a button and activating a sound dampening system in the walls of his office. "Put her on speaker phone, I might need your insight on what she has to say."
A moment later Emma's voice spoke up from a small speaker set into his desk. "Shaw, I have information on the Sentinel Project. My bodyguard Sandman was able to tail Buckman to a meeting…"
Sage and Sebastian listened, with Sebastian asking questions at certain points to clear up bits and pieces of information. The total package however was very ugly, and as Emma finished he said so. "Five hundred killer robots of indeterminate size and designed with the ability to hunt down mutants from an undisclosed location, lovely."
To his surprise however, Emma replied. "I actually have a plan, one that would need you and yours. It's based off the idea that these things will show up to Senator Kelly's rally. I think we can place a tracer on the robots or Kelly, and trail it back to their headquarters, construction site, or whatever you wish to call it. But your Hellions will need to provide the necessary firepower to shut them down. And if we destroy this first batch, they won't be able to make any more, letting us hunt down and destroy any information pertaining to them. The sensor package and programming for said is probably the most important part of that."
"Yes…" Sebastian murmured, thinking hard. And afterwards, your own usefulness will be at an end my dear. "I think that sounds doable, though I will also be bringing my own newest… acquaintance into this." Potter once mentioned having a few team members of his own, that could allow me to evaluate not just him but his allies.
Sebastian could almost hear Emma raising an eyebrow in surprise at that, but rather than ask who he meant (which probably meant that she had an idea of it already but just didn't want to ask) she said. "Very well, I'll see you at the rally then."
"You'll be there personally from the start?" Sebastian asked, surprised.
"I think so yes. If push comes to shove and we can't get a tracker on one of the Sentinels after they show up, I'll take any information I can get from Kelly's mind."
After the call disconnected, Sebastian turned to Sage who replied without prompting. "She's telling the truth on everything, no change in tone or inflection in comparison to times she certainly or even possibly lied in the past I have seen or heard. It's also a good plan, 89% change of succeeding if you can get a tracker on one of the robots, 42% chance of it working without that tracker."
"Emma's idea of taking the knowledge from Kelly's mind?"
"9% chance of working in regards to the Sentinel program, 100% certainty she would find something personally incriminating on the man." Sage replied, smiling faintly. "Kelly's a politician, enough said in regards to both odds."
Sebastian nodded, but then his eyes narrowed. "Call in Fitzroy and Roehm, and get Leland on the line. As much as he'll bitch about it, we're going to need all hands on deck for this. Then clear my schedule for tomorrow, Potter and I are going to come to an agreement to work together right damn now."