The Avalon Project
Chapter 3, Part I
Luis Milan:
I was sitting there in front of a workstation having my illusions
shattered. Not all that unpleasant really, as I had grown considerably less
dependent on them recently, and the truth looked a hell of a lot more
interesting, and perhaps as encouraging, in a personal way.
I should have known something was funny all those months ago,
when Cortez wanted me to write that biography. He only provided me with
Magneto's journals from before his last attempt to take over the world, with
that earthquake-inducer. At the time, I'd been an ardent fan of the well-
intentioned megalomaniac who had written those journals, but even I had
realized that he was a very different man from the somewhat wearier and
more cynical Magneto who had turned himself over twice to be judged by
the powers he'd tried to overthrow for years. I had hoped that Magnus
himself would tell me what had changed, but I'd barely had time to
introduce myself before Xavier and his hit squad had showed up. They'd
left him as good as dead. Now he was back, but we were caught in a mad
race to rescue as many mutants as we could and to make our home hidden
and safe while those who would hunt us down were... otherwise occupied.
I'd found some of the answers I'd wanted even before Magneto had
been reawakened by recent events. I found journals at his base in
Antarctica covering the period between the fall of Asteroid M and the time
he summoned us to join him. However, these raised even more questions
than they answered. This Magnus was done with war, bent on building a
new world rather than try to conquer the old one, but as the days
progressed, his writing became more disjointed, more irrational. After
several readings, I had some suspicion as to when this other change had
begun and why, but I still had no proof. I felt I'd need to do something
about it pretty soon.
After Magnus' return and the destruction of Avalon, we retreived
Asteroid M, and I got the computers online again. All the files were intact,
including the missing journals, and these answered my original questions as
to why he'd changed his mind about conquering the world in the first place.
It started on that island, when he had all his enemies laid at his feet, when he
realized all it was going to cost him to take over the world was his soul, and
that wasn't a price he wanted to pay. It made sense to me and was a
wonderful story as well, with shades of Prospero in "The Tempest".
I'd just finished reading about the captain of the fishing boat, a
flatscan, who had rescued Magnus after the destruction of an earlier edition
of the asteroid base we currently occupied, when I heard the noise in the
adjacent storeroom. I pulled out my sidearm and went charging in there.
Magnus looked up from a crate of backup disks, looking even more haggard
than he had a few hours before, when he'd finally gone to bed. He was still
in his pajamas and bathrobe, his hair and beard mussed from sleep.
"Sorry, sir." I reholstered my weapon, embarrassed. "Um, can I
help you with something?"
"I doubt it," he muttered, rubbing at his eyes. "I'm looking for some
image files, but I... don't think they even exist."
I didn't know what to say to this for a moment. He closed the crate
again, and kept rubbing at his face, wiping away tears, I realized. "Ah, sir.
If you can tell me what you're looking for, I can set up searches on our
computers and there are databases on Earth I can check..."
He shook his head. "There are no photographs of my wife and my
daughte. I had some sketches of them, years ago, but I destroyed them
because they were driving me crazy. I... never thought that the lack of them
would be even worse."
"I could, ah, help you recreate those sketches from your memory." I
offered.
The tears started to run down his face in earnest. "No," he said
softly, "They're gone. I can't remember them. I dreamt of them again, of
Anya's death, the last time I saw Magda, only I couldn't see them, just hear
the screams and know exactly what was happening, but I couldn't see
them..." He mopped at his face.
I nodded, embarrassed. I knew what he was talking about.
According to his journals, he'd relived that incident many times in his
dreams. But he had seemed to have a pretty good visual memory. I'd found
a number of his sketches in his files, both on paper and on disk. "Gone,
sir?"
"I'm missing a lot of memories. Aftereffects of the psychic attack
Charles put me down with all those months ago." He caught a look at my
appalled expression and smiled wryly, "Not to worry, Milan. I don't seem
to have lost any technical information or recent memories. Just... personal
things. That don't matter... right now. And I'm afraid you can't do without
me at the moment even if I were completely senile."
"Wouldn't dream of it, sir," I said, weakly. Then, "Sorry to hear
about this, sir. We thought you were completely recovered. Perhaps they'll
come back to you."
He shook his head slowly. "Brain damage doesn't heal. I'll just
count myself lucky that I didn't lose anything essential. What has changed
since I went to bed?"
"Exodus got us an iceteroid. We're melting and filtering it right now
to fill up the water tanks. And we're going to need them. We've got a
horde of refugees up here now. Over a thousand at the last count. Work
crews are getting the rest of the living space habitable, but it will take a
week or more. There isn't all that much of it left."
He sighed. "How are the food stores holding up? I don't know
what's become of them since before I rounded you up, then Charles came...
and that was months ago."
I had some good news on that account. "We kept on adding to
them, sir. They're stored in Antarctica, and we've got people down there
too. The teleporters are online again, so we can move stuff back and forth
very easily."
Magneto nodded. "I was afraid we'd fill to capacity. Any idea
where these people have all come from?"
I whisked my datapad from my belt. "I've been taking it down as
they've come in, sir. Point of origin, approximate numbers, where they've
been housed since..."
Magnus took the datapad and looked over it. He was clearly
exhausted, but too overwrought to go back to bed in his current state. If
getting back to work would clear his mind, I was more than willing to let
him go to it.
***
Charles Xavier:
The vivid scenery of the Carpathians unfolded around me as I drove
along the mountain road in a red convertable, the one I'd always wanted but
never got around to having except in dreams. I'd never been there myself of
course; these were another man's memories. "Stolen" was not the word to
describe them, "borrowed", perhaps, or better yet, "shared" with a friend
whose companionship I needed now more than ever.
Once I made it to the top of the ridge, the valley spread out below
me and I could see my destination ahead of me, a quaint little village with
smoke coming from the chimneys. I drove into the outskirts and pulled
over outside an isolated little shack with a vegetable garden and a long
woodpile. I'd been inside that shack, seen its single, sparsely-furnished
room. How could he remember that wretched little hovel so fondly?
Nevertheless, it was his, and if he wanted it, he could have it.
As if on cue, a tall figure came around the corner of the building. As
soon as he saw me, Magnus dropped his axe and rushed up to greet me,
smiling broadly. I couldn't help smiling back. He looked healthy and happy,
as well he should. I had buried all memories of the tragedies that had
happened later in his life, after he'd left Czechoslovakia, and while I was at
it, I had spruced up the memory in which he was living. There was nothing
I could do to erase or soften the recollections of his years at Auschwitz; I
wanted him content, not anesthetized.
Some of my troubles in the waking world must have shown on my
face, because Magnus became concerned as he approached me. "You look
worried, Charles. Is something wrong?"
"Trouble back home. But there isn't anything I can do about it at
this moment, so I thought I'd stop by the village and see how things are."
He managed a smile, "Well enough, Charles, as usual."
I tensed immediately. He was lying, but how could it be? What
could be troubling him here? And I sensed that he was only trying not to
add to my troubles...
"Magnus," I said firmly, "You are perturbed, and not over my
problems. Is something wrong here in the village?"
Magnus held on to that weak smile and shook his head. "No,
everything's fine here,
Charles. Just... a little strange. Has something happened to your family
back in America?"
I sighed. "I'm afraid so." Close enough to the truth as to make no
difference.
His face fell at this. "I suppose you'll have to return home, then?" he
asked, unhappily. My heart warmed. At this time, I doubted that even the
X-Men would have missed me if I were to disappear from their midst.
"It shan't be for long," I assured him. "You'll hardly know I was
gone." The last statement was, in fact completely true. But I was not going
to be sidetracked. "Magnus, what's going on here that's 'strange'?"
Magnus let his lips and looked at me uncertainly, "Well, it's nothing I
can show you. It's just... the weather's odd. I've been collecting wood, for
the winter, as I always do at this time of year, but winter... hasn't come.
And it should have, a long time ago! I never manage to scrounge up this
much wood in a summer."
I cursed myself silently, for letting him build up his stores, not
realizing that they also served him as a calendar, something I did not want
him to have in this refuge of eternal summer.
He went on, "There never seems to be any work for me, yet there's
plenty of food around. I can't figure out how Magda can buy things if I'm
not working." I stared at him, desolate. Magnus' dreaming mind should not
be capable of making these deductions; he was supposed to simply accept
his surroundings...
"What really frightens me..." he stared back at me, intensely and
anxiously. "I'm worried... about Anya. Something terrible is going to
happen to her, soon. I've never had a presentiment like this before. This
isn't just Romany superstition, Charles. I know..." His voice was shaking.
"Oh, I believe you, my friend." And with that, I forced the scenery
to shift and pushed his memories of the last setting and of our conversation
deep into his subconscious, where, I now realized, they might not stay as
they should. Magnus' mind was attempting to leave its dream state, to
become conscious. Should it succeed, the results would be disastrous, as he
was currently housed within my own mind. This was _not_ what I needed
to be dealing with right now.
We stood in the driveway of my own home in Westchester, New
York, whose real-world
counterpart I would probably never see again, as it had recently been seized
by the United States government. Time to start this conversation over
again.
"So, how are the New Mutants coming along?" I asked him.
He looked a little shaken for a moment, as if he did not know where
he was. "Very well, Charles, but I'm worried. They've been restless since
the X-Men... died. They keep wanting to go out on their own to play
superhero. I'm just afraid they'll try it and that something's going to
happen..."
I shut my eyes and groaned inwardly, not even wanting to think
about what was going on back in the real world. Dammit! Why wouldn't
he just live in the past I'd rebuilt for him, where he was happy, and safe, and
harmless? Why did he struggle so to remember the horrors that had been
and that were to come?
"Professor! Professor! Wake up!" I started in my chair, opening
my eyes. I was awake, back on that weird Carribbean island where we'd
defeated Magneto so long ago, the last time he'd tried to take over the
world. Now, it was our last refuge, a base that the US Government did not
know of and could not find, for it wasn't on any map. Rogue and Wolverine
stood in front of me.
"There's a boat coming to the island," Rogue told me breathlessly,
"Usin' Bishop's scarf for a flag."
"I thank you for the good news." It certainly had been a while since
I'd had some. I pulled myself completely upright in my wheelchair and
started rolling towards the door. Rogue and Wolverine followed me. I
couldn't go to the dock itself, as that involved a long flight of stairs, but I
could see the approaching ship. I reached out telepathically. There were
only two people on board: Bishop and Captain Forrester. I was delighted
that he'd actually managed to find her in port and that she'd agreed to ferry
him here. I had considered sending Rogue back to collect him, but that
would have been very risky. I waited patiently for them to dock and to
climb up the stairs.
Bishop greeted us as brusquely as ever and launched right into his
report. "Gambit will rejoin us once he has finished checking out Lila
Cheney's facilities. She, Cable and Mr. Sinister have all offered to take us
in." Wolverine and I chuckled at that last. Bishop continued, "I'll admit
Sinister's people were very efficient about cleaning out that Brood nest in
New York. Radio news was not available on Captain Forrester's ship, so I
probably know less than you about the number and status of the other nests,
and how the other superhero teams fare against them.
"Archangel was indeed captured by the government, but probably
for the best. They have taken him to their medical facilities and Captain
America says his condition has stabilized."
I sighed in relief when I heard that.
"Excuse me, Professor," Forrester began. "I hadn't heard any of this
earlier. What does the government want with Archangel?"
She hadn't been listening to the radio. Perhaps if she had, she'd have
been less willing to help us. Well, it was too late now, and I felt that we
owed her the truth. "It's on my account, Captain. I'm afraid that I became a
wanted man yesterday. One of my operations, an underground lobby,
among other things, on behalf of mutants, was infiltrated and exposed.
Gyrich, our old foe in the NSA, has convinced the Justice Department that it
constitutes a plot to overthrow the whole government and instate mutant
rule or some nonsense such as that."
"Give him a break, Chuck. The government hadn't accused anyone,
not even you, of anything but misdemeanors until you freaked and tried to
brainblast Gyrich."
I turned to glare at Wolverine. When I turned back to Captain
Forrester, I didn't need telepathy to tell me that she was absolutely appalled.
And perhaps, a small nagging voice inside of me remarked, she was right to
be.
Wolverine cleared his throat. "We can't stay here forever. Jean's
dyin', and I'm not even sure we can move her. We're gonna need help to
save her."
"What's the matter with Jean?" Forrester asked in a small voice.
"The night before last," I told her, "The X-Men were lured into a
trap by a group of Brood who had incubated in the bodies of certain of our
enemies. Scott, Jean and Archangel were hurt, and four others died, Storm
among them."
Forrester's eyes filled with tears. She had met Storm, helped her and
the others defeat Magneto here, and they'd gotten on quite well.
"Only two dead, Charlie. While you were asleep, we got a comm
call from Storm. Mags went back to pick up the pieces of Avalon, get 'em
back into orbit, and he rescued her and Iceman. He buried the others. She
says he put Asteroid M back into space too, and they've got pretty good
medical facilities."
My relief at hearing that Storm and Iceman were alive almost
balanced out my horror at hearing that Avalon was back up there, and
inhabited by God-only-knows-what...
Forrester stared at me. I realized belatedly that she was suffering
from shock. We had simply dumped too much on her at once. She spoke
one word: "Magneto?"
I pressed my lips together, composing words, but Wolverine jumped
in at this point.
"That was where the Brood lured us, Avalon. He got woken up during the
battle and came in on our side. Good thing too."
"He was asleep?" Forrester looked back at me, confused.
Rogue finally burst out, "Professor, if Storm called us from there,
the Acolytes are gonna figure out where we are pretty soon. And people
need us back in the States to fight the Brood. We've gotta hook up with
Cable or Lila, find out if either of them have decent medical facilities."
Wolverine growled and shook his head. "Lila might be able to move
Jean, but I know that Cable lost most of his tech-stuff recently. Listen, tell
Maggie to get down here and pick up Jean. We know both his Antarctic
base and Asteroid M have good med facilities. If Storm's all right, Jean will
be. Us, he won't like, so we'd better tell him and be gone."
"That's not the real Magneto." I reminded them. "I doubt he's
Brood, but we don't know who he is or what his agenda is. I don't trust
him."
Forrester looked back up, still shaken. "How do you know?"
I gritted my teeth, "Because I killed him with a telepathic attack on
Avalon, months ago, just before Exodus attacked Genosha. I burned out
his mind. He did not 'wake up". Someone or something is using his body to
masquerade as Magneto, to control his power base. He's dead, I know,
because I made sure, as only I can."
Forrester stared at me, disbelieving. Rogue looked away.
Wolverine seemed amused. They all believed me, much to my self-disgust,
that I would actually murder the man who'd been my best friend,
occasionally my ally. And I might have, were I a little weaker, without any
other options available. I don't know if I could have brought myself to
actually do it... that way. Or if I could have continued... with that on my
conscience. Indeed, if I had, why should I bother, if there were nothing to
make me a better man, my cause a better cause than his? As it was, the
price I payed was a terrible one, Logan's injuries, the trust of certain of my
students... And I'd left Magnus' body, a menace even when empty, an
inspiration to his monstrous followers, Exodus and the Acolytes. And now
inhabited by... something that walked and talked enough like my mad
friend that it had convinced Magnus' Acolytes and my own X-Men that it
was the real Magneto... But it wasn't. I and only I knew what became of
the real Magneto and he wasn't on Asteroid M.
Tears starting from Forrester's eyes. "You people are crazy!"
Gambit's voice behind me made me jump, "Charles, why you make
this pretty lady cry?"
I wheeled to face him. Lila stood next to him; she must have
teleported him here.
"Pack up, X-Men," she cried gaily, "Time to get moving!"
"We are not yet committed," I told her angrily, "To joining forces
with you."
"She's got room for us, X-Force doesn't," said Gambit.
"How 'bout a good hospital?" demanded Wolverine.
"Umm, for humans? I don't think so. But I could teleport people to
a hospital in New York or California." Lila offered.
Wolverine sighed. "Up to you, Chuck. But I think Mags has better
stuff, and Jeannie would rather wake up there than in the Vault."
I sent Wolverine and the others to secure what we'd been able to
bring over in the Blackbird, while I went to our makeshift infirmary.
Captain Forrester followed me. Jean was still comatose, but Scott was
awake. While he exchanged greetings with the captain, I examined her
and found her condition just as Wolverine had described it. Without better
medical treatment, she was not going to pull through. Specifically, she
needed the kind of advanced medical treatment now available to us only on
Muir Island or Asteroid M. I tried to raise Muir Island on the comm
equipment, but only reached the messaging service.
Behind me, I could hear the remaining X-Men entering the room and
talking to each other.
Scott called out to me, "Professor, I'm willing to go along with
Wolverine's plan. But if Jean goes to Asteroid M, I'm going with her.
There's not much I can do to help you with the Brood right now anyway."
I was fresh out of other options. "Wolverine, this was originally
Magneto's comm equipment. I suspect it's got the address for Asteroid M
saved somewhere in here. Kindly arrange matters." He trotted over to it
and set about the business.
"You better be long gone b'fore Maggie gets here," Gambit
reminded me.
"That is the plan. I take it that the Blackbird is packed and ready to
go?"
In the background, I could here Wolverine: "Take me t'yer leader,
Bub." As he waited, Wolverine looked back up at us. "I'll stay and make
sure Jean gets treated right."
"Don't be a fool!" I barked. "If that Magneto is anything like the
real thing, he has it in for you as much as he does for me and he'll kill you as
soon as look at you. Scott, I think he'll be willing to overlook, but you..."
"I'll stay," said Captain Forrester softly.
We stared at her, dumbfounded. "It should be alright," Scott
argued. "Magneto has been at large for 48 hours and hasn't attacked any
humans."
"But remember how he threatened at Illyana's funeral," I began,
remembering that this Magneto wasn't, couldn't be the same man.
Wolverine spoke into the commlink behind me, "You planning to kill
me?" I realized he had put on earphones so we could not hear Magneto's
response. Then, "I want to see you die, but I need Jeannie to live. I'll be
long gone by the time you get here anyways. I'll give yer regards to
Charlie."
I looked down at Jean's limp form and wished for another
alternative. Scott and Lee seemed content in their choice, and I could think
of no fair way to keep them from going through with it.
***
Luis Milan:
Several of us went with Magnus when he answered the X-Men's
call. I was motivated mostly by curiosity because I'd seen so much about
that eldritch island in Magneto's records. I think, however, that Exodus,
among others, wanted an opportunity to take revenge for all the defeats and
setbacks we and our leader had suffered at the hands of the X-Men, as if
there were any point. Magnus left me no time for sight-seeing, striding right
into the nearest building as soon as Exodus teleported us in. I managed to
stay right behind Magnus. I recognized the two bedridden figures as soon
as we entered the infirmary, even without their costumes: Jean Summers,
alias Phoenix, and her husband Scott Summers, Cyclops, both of whom
looked to be in pretty rough shape. Cyclops looked up at us stoically as we
walked in. A blond woman in ordinary, even shabby, clothing rather than a
superhero uniform got up from a chair beside his bed. I didn't recognize her
until Magneto named her for me.
"Lee!" The obvious delight in Magnus' face and voice didn't elicit
quite the right response from her. She actually backed up a couple of steps,
fear evident on her face. I choked back my horror as I started to realize
where this would lead. This Forrester woman was the last person Magnus
should have anything to with right now, a weakness he could not afford.
Delgado wandered up to Phoenix' bedside and clenched his fists. He
suggested, "You want I should put 'em out of our misery now, boss?"
"No," Magneto said bluntly. "Exodus, can you teleport them back
to the Medical Center safely?"
Exodus grinned, walked between the two beds, and snapped his
fingers. He and the patients vanished.
Forrester sighed, obviously relieved that Magnus didn't intend to
allow the lot of them to be killed. I prayed that he would realize that it was
now time to leave.
No such luck. "Well, Captain, are you satisfied that your friends are
in good hands, or do you wish to return to Asteroid M with us and see for
yourself?" he asked, his voice calmer, but hopeful.
Forrester folded her arms around herself as if chilled and nodded,
her face set. "I'd like to go with you... to make sure they're alright." As we
left the building, she seemed reluctant to walk near him, until she noticed
the hostility on the faces of several of the Acolytes when they looked at her.
I had to talk to someone about this problem, and Rasputin and
Voght were too busy running the station. I'd have to alert them about the
situation later. Scanner had been level-headed enough during the period
when Magnus had lain unconscious, while we'd accepted the rule of that
idiot, Exodus, and she was also a telepath. Klaus, the neophyte, was
certainly an idiot, but unlikely to talk to the wrong people. Also, he might
be sympathetic to Forrester, a perspective that might prove useful.
Magnus lifted us back to the station, and, as he walked towards the
Medical Center with Forrester, I returned to my post in the Central
Operations Room. Anne-Marie was off-shift, so it was deserted. I paged
Scanner and Klaus and had them join me there.
"You're wondering why I've gathered you all here..." Klaus
prompted me. Smartass kid.
I silenced him with a glare, not something I can do to many people.
"You saw the woman that entered with Magnus?"
Scanner shrugged. "Another mutant? One of the X-Men?"
"No, she's a human woman, the captain of a fishing boat," I
explained. "To make a long story short, some years ago, she saved
Magneto's life and stole his heart, just before he took up with the X-Men.
In fact, she may have convinced him to do so."
Scanner leaned forward, fascinated. Gossip often has that effect on
people, especially gossip about a figure as remote and powerful as Magnus.
Klaus, however, just grinned broadly. What did that wretched kid know?
"She dumped him after he left the Xavier's Mansion, even though he
thought the X-Men were dead and his students had abandoned him. She
was afraid he'd get in the way of her 'normal life'. He was still moping about
her when he met our erstwhile leader, that treacherous bastard, Fabian
Cortez. When Magnus saw her just now, he threw himself at her. She's
only here to make sure the X-Men are settled, then she'll be gone again.
You can see where this is going, can't you? He's going to have his heart
broken all over again, be humiliated, by a human. He can't afford this right
now, not here, with the situation we're dealing with now..."
"Where did you find this out?" Scanner demanded.
"He keeps a journal, remember? Cortez only showed us stuff from
the old days, back when Magnus thought the way Cortez did. I read about
Forrester in later stuff, on the mainframe in Antarctica and the one here."
Klaus whistled, annoying me further.
"Um," Scanner began. "His, ah, change of heart, how bad was it? If
he's gone Xavier's route, I can see real trouble cropping up soon... Just
what _does_ he think anyway?"
My jaw tightened. We were, in fact, a bunch of damned fools, signing on
as the fanatic followers of a man of whom we all knew little, and who was
turning out to be, perhaps, as confused as we...
"I had a sign!" Klaus exclaimed. "You remember, Luis, back at the
Mont St. Francis, when I left. I'd overheard Cortez plotting with that weird
master of his, but he found out that I'd seen him. He tried to kill me but I
escaped and I was rescued by a human fisherwoman. His elite guard killed
her...
"And then you sold us all out to the X-Men instead of telling us
what was going on!" I finished for him. "Good thinking, Klaus!"
He had the good grace to look somewhat abashed by this.
"What do you want us to do about this?" Scanner asked. "What
can we do?"
"He knows what he's doing," Klaus said smugly.
I put my face in my hands and sighed.
"Perhaps," he added hopefully, "She's realized that she should return
to him."
"It's more tangled than that," I told them, choosing my words with
care. "Before the Acolytes ever formed, Magnus had... publicly backed off
on his views that humanity had to be conquered, suppressed so that mutants
could survive. The views that Cortez founded the Acolytes to uphold. The
journals of Magnus that Cortez had me publicize... had been selected
carefully to support Cortez' view of what Magnus thought. I think that
Cortez tried to kill Magneto for the same reason, so that Magnus would not
say anything that Cortez found... too moderate."
"But when he brought us here, he seemed determined not to give the
humans any quarter..." Scanner began.
"Oh, he had his doubts," I interrupted. "But the conqueror always
won out. But, remember, who reminded him, corrected him, every time he
stopped to question what was happening... again, after all those years of...
his new... less aggressive stance?"
"Exodus!" yelped Klaus. I glared at him again. He was right, of
course, even though he hadn't been there.
I nodded. "Magnus said in his recent journals that he didn't think
that the world-conquest thing was going to work, and that it wouldn't be
worth the resulting horrors even if it did have a chance. But when he found
Exodus, after a while, he found himself entertaining the idea again, and
some even weirder ones. Terrible stuff, destruction for no purpose. He
actually said he wasn't sure why and it was starting to really bother him.
Scanner, could you tell if Exodus was... pushing him telepathically? I'm just
not that sensitive and wasn't paying enough attention at the time."
Scanner stared back at me, fear starting to show on her face. "I...
I'm not sure. Exodus is a telepath and his aura is so... loud that I can't really
tell if he's actually using his powers or not unless I'm actually watching and
I... have been afraid to watch him too closely; he might notice..."
"What's to stop him from doing it again?" I demanded. "We might
just succeed this time, if our fearless leader doesn't make any major strategic
errors, but if Exodus can impose his own pathetic plans on Magnus..."
Scanner shook her head. "I think Exodus is not going to have an
easy time of it anymore. Magneto's mindshields are different since he's
come to, much stronger, not surprising after he survived and recovered from
that telepathic attack. I've heard of that sort of thing happening under
similar circumstances. The mind instinctively responds to the abuse it's
taken. He still leaks emotions and surface thoughts, but that's just the way
he is. I'm not even sure I could 'send' thought messages to him, unless he
were watching for them and let them in, and I'm a pretty powerful telepath.
It would be very hard to influence him without trying to break his shields
completely, which is certainly beyond my power, and he would notice."
I felt relief wash over me and hoped she was right, that it would be
enough. I all but jumped out of my skin when I heard the door 'whoosh'
open.
"Excuse me, I was told that I could make a phone call from here."
Speaking of the devil, that would be Captain Forrester. She walked in
alone, surprisingly calm given that she was surrounded by the enemies of the
X-Men and people who had killed far more than their share of ordinary
humans like herself.
"I... think that can be arranged," I told her, my throat suddenly dry.
Scanner and Klaus looked back at me uncertainly. True enough, we could
tap into the telecommunications satellites easily enough and I could keep it
untraceable. A couple of minutes of work, and I had it set up.
She was talking to someone in southeastern Florida, area code 305,
I noted. She didn't ask us to leave, so we just sat and watched her. Sure
enough, she was calling her crew. "Carlos, you and Ron charter a boat and
go to the island. Yeah, that island, the weird one. Get the Arcadia back to
Shark Bay, and get it ready for our next trip." She paused and whatever the
guy on the other end told her made her bite her lip and shut her eyes. She
took a deep breath before she answered him, "No, I don't know what to tell
you to tell them. How's this: tell them everything you know. And if I'm not
back by Thursday, go without me." She hung up, without giving him a
chance to protest. "I must be out of my mind," she told us.
"Them?" I prompted, shamelessly.
She sighed and sat down, rubbing at her eyes, "The FBI. Has
something to do with the X-Men, I think."
"Maybe it has to do with Magnus," suggested Klaus. "They may
have found out he's back. Maybe they wanted to use you as a hostage..."
I pulled one leg back to kick him under the table, but stopped
myself. Good God, if he was right, we could not let her leave...
"I think the US government has known about my... connection with
him since back when he joined up with the X-Men." Lee Forrester was
starting to look like she was out of her depth again.
My conscience began to twinge painfully at this point. "Ah, tensions
have increased since then," I explained. "The last couple of times he
announced his plans, the UN or someone that big sicced special orbital
hardware on him. Almost as if they like his idea of filling his space station
with refugee mutants even less than they liked his idea of taking over the
world."
"Or they've just had time to organize themselves against him,"
remarked Scanner, softly.
Forrester shook her head. "I don't know anything about any of this.
Guess I'll have to start looking this stuff up." She stared despondantly back
at the handset she'd used to make the phone call.
"Didn't the X-Men tell you about everything?" Klaus asked.
"No, I didn't want to know; I thought that my ignorance would
protect me. I'm starting to learn better," she admitted.
I thought it best not to comment on this.
"Ah... one more thing. Is there any way I could use e-mail from
here?" She was starting to look kind of anxious.
"Whom do you need to contact? I could enable you to telnet an
account Earthside or set up an account for you here..."
Her shoulders slumped as if in defeat. "I don't have the address and
was hoping you would, but I don't even know if he can access his account
anymore. I just wanted to let Charles Xavier know that this really is
Magnus, not some imposter. I don't know if it would help him at all, but I
think he ought to know and to stop spreading rumors to the contrary."
I realized I was sitting there with my mouth open. "He... what... he's
telling people..."
"He's wrong!" snapped Scanner. "Listen, I'm a telepath, I know.
His mental signature was... influenced by Xavier's attack, but it's him. I
knew him just long enough before the attack to be sure of that."
Lee Forrester sighed again. "Yeah. Well, for the record, I think
you're right. I don't think anyone in the world can act well enough to get
down all of his eccentricities. He started to give me a tour of this... of your
space station, reminded me a lot of the tour he gave me of his crazy
earthquake machine complex, just before he offered to run the world for
everyone..." She shook her head again, smiling this time. "Some things
never do change."
I made a note to myself to think of something to do about this
woman. Her political naivite was almost as bad as Klaus'. I was starting to
develop a creeping suspicion, the kind you get after reading enough of a
person's journals, that Magneto himself was no better.
"I'll see if I can locate an address and fire off a message," I offered,
"But I suspect the U.S. government already has the computer in
Westchester. I'll see if he has an account on any commercial service, but if I
can find out about it, I bet that the government can as well."
"Thanks for trying," Lee said.
A tapping sound filled the air. I realized that the station had a public
address system and that someone was trying to use it. "Attention!" said a
man's voice. I recognized it as the Light's. "I am announcing a celebratory
dinner, hosted by those of us rescued from the Singapore enclave, in
appreciation of our new country. Asteroid M was liberated from the surface
of the Earth just 24 hours ago! Everyone is invited to attend the dinner,
which is being held in Auditorium C, section 4, starting in fifteen minutes."
"Guess I'd better go drag him away from whatever he's doing and
make sure he gets fed," Lee remarked, presumably about Magneto, and
wandered out the way she had come.
I looked back at Klaus. "Guess we'll leave you in charge here, kid"
"No, wait!" protested Klaus, far too late.
"Someone's got to monitor the sensors and take incoming messages.
Here," I flipped on a TV screen, set to CNN, "Keep an eye on the news, and
let us know if any major mutant enclaves need rescuing. C'mon, Scanner."
We were out the door before he could even splutter one more syllable.
Feedback is welcome! Please e-mail me at teed0003@tc.umn.edu
Last updated 4/24/96.
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